KKINGMAN'S VIE 1 
THE BIBLE 

m 

O.F.DONALDSON 






C!assT5SSli 
Book ^P(g> 



Copyright N?_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 
OF THE BIBLE 



BY 

O. F. DONALDSON 







BOSTON 
SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 

1909 



Copyright 1909 
Sherman, French &> Company 






©CI Sf>5 



PREFACE 

Before proceeding to a study of the Bible, it 
is well to have outlined the view-point of the 
writer. 

All accurate knowledge is based on established 
facts. A conception of mathematics must begin 
with an idea of a digit or an individual thing. 
So it must be with the Bible. This fact, it seems 
to me, is that God, or a First Cause, expressed 
Himself in the material universe and in the soul ; 
that is, the thoughts and ideas of God are ex- 
pressed in the laws of nature and in the soul, just 
as the thoughts and ideas of man are expressed 
in his actions and products. Not that God is. 
This is implied. But that God expresses Him- 
self. This is stated. 

The Bible treats the expression of God in the 
material universe as completed, while the soul is 
yet growing and developing under His guidance. 
The development of this soul is, therefore, the 
subject of the Bible. 

Thus I look upon the narratives of Adam and 
Eve, and Cain and Abel, as portraying the laws 
of the soul and showing the process gone through 
in arriving at certain consequences. The further 
narratives covering the entire Book show the 
growth of the soul from that condition to its pres- 
ent development, and the complete compliance 
with these laws by Jesus Christ. 



PREFACE 

I do not attempt to apply fanciful details to 
these accounts, but explain them in the light of 
my knowledge of the soul under the environment 
given. This is true of every attempted explana- 
tion. O. F. D. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Mosaic Account of Creation . 1 
II. Physical Man 13 

III. Spiritual Man, The Purpose of 

Creation 25 

IV. The Problem of Life 32 

V. From Adam to Noah 47 

VI. Mosaic Ideals 58 

VII. The Development of the Jew . . 76 

VIII. Other Peoples 86 

IX. The Early Life of Christ ... 92 

X. Christ's View of Life 113 

XI. Christ's Years of Work . . . .126 

XII. John's View of Christ . . . .154 

XIII. Closing Thoughts 180 

XIV. Paul's View 193 

XV. Subsequent History 202 



CHAPTER I 
THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION 

The opening chapter of the Bible is an expla- 
nation of the phenomena of the universe as a 
basis for a true conception of the relation of God 
to man. 

Moses, or the writers, evidently deemed it nec- 
essary that we should understand the nature of 
creation, as well as the steps by which it was 
evolved. This was not of sufficient importance to 
require exhaustive explanation, but a true con- 
ception of the duties and possibilities of this life 
must be based on a clear idea of the nature of the 
material world. A mere statement of the truth 
seemed to them sufficient, as the inquisitive mind 
would find evidence to substantiate its correctness. 
Therefore the explanation of matter and activity 
is given in a few short sentences. 

" In the beginning God created the heaven and 
the earth. And the earth was without form and 
void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. 
And the spirit of God moved on the face of the 
waters. And God said, Let there be light, and 
there was light." 

Moses covers in these sentences the questions, 
What is matter and force? and Where does en- 
ergy begin? He says that there was a creation 
of substance or elementary matter which in its 
1 



% A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

initial stage was " without form and void " and 
in darkness. He would have us understand that 
nothing which would appeal to the five senses of 
man existed. In this original form of creation, 
what we term energy or persistent force was in 
operation. This force caused elemental matter 
to become sensuous or to assume such coarse and 
enlarged form as to be discernible by the senses 
of man. The question, What is matter? is not 
answered, but energy begins to operate before 
matter is knowable. 

Scientists are making a similar attempt to ex- 
plain this phenomenon. From experiments the 
following hypothesis is deduced, which is not 
looked upon as proved, but " as a good work- 
ing hypothesis on a very difficult subject." " Ma- 
terial bodies are built up of extremely minute 
particles of matter called atoms, which are not 
divisible." These atoms are supposed to be pos- 
sessed of energy which draws them together, and 
when thus drawn into groups form what is termed 
molecules. These atoms and molecules are fur- 
ther supposed to be in motion, with considerable 
space between them compared to their size. The 
size of these atoms and molecules may be under- 
stood from the following : 

" The smallest object which would be visible 
under the most powerful miscroscope is probably 
not smaller than a cube of one one-hundred-thou- 
sandth of an inch on a side. Such a cube would 
contain from sixty to one hundred million mole- 



MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION 3 

cules of oxygen or of nitrogen. This would mean 
twice as many atoms, as each molecule of these 
gases contains two atoms. Now, as the molecules 
themselves fill but perhaps one twentieth of this 
space, it is easy to understand that a single mole- 
cule is much too small to be seen even with the 
most powerful magnification which we can at pres- 
ent, or perhaps ever, produce." * 

Scientists thus assert that matter is not know- 
able without the presence of energy. 

The Mosaic explanation presents " the spirit of 
God " as force or the knowable part of the uni- 
verse. For if matter is not knowable by the 
senses, any sensuous thing is a manifestation of 
force or the " spirit of God." " The spirit of 
God " or force is expressed, manifested or re- 
vealed in this matter and motion. Matter and 
motion are not the " spirit of God M or force, but 
different manifestations of the Spirit of God or 
force. 

John Fiske, a disciple of Herbert Spencer, in 
his " Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy," reasons 
thus relative to matter and motion : 

" These are familiar propositions that matter 
is indestructible and that motion is continuous. 
As in the burning of wood or the evaporation of 
water the vanishing matter has only undergone a 
molecular change, which renders it temporarily 
imperceptible by our unaided senses: similar 
has been the evidence in the case of motion. 

i Appleton's Physics. 



4 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

When it was shown that the apparent loss of mo- 
tion by friction is, in fact, only a transformation 
of a certain quantity of molar motion into 
heat, it was admitted on all sides that motion is 
indestructible as well as matter. Deep as are the 
truths that matter is indestructible and motion 
continuous, there is yet a deeper truth implied by 
these two. Since it is primarily by virtue of re- 
sistance that we distinguish matter from empty 
space, it follows that our ideas are built up of 
experiences of force and that the indestructible 
element in matter is its resisting power or the 
force which it exerts. 

" The case of motion is precisely similar : we 
cognize motion as the successive occupation of a 
series of positions by matter, and the essential ele- 
ment in the cognation, the necessity which a 
moving body is under to go on changing its 
position, is proved to result from early experience 
of force as manifested in the movement of our 
muscles. We are obliged to conceive this force 
as impressed in the shape of reaction on the bod- 
ies that cause the arrest. Or put the whole case 
briefly in another form: The fundamental ele- 
ments of our conception of matter are its force- 
element and its space-element, namely, resistance 
and extension. The fundamental elements of our 
conception of motion are its force-element and 
its space- and time-element, namely, energy and 
velocity." 

Mr. Fiske deducts from the foregoing argu- 



MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION 5 

ment this conclusion : " Therefore, in asserting 
that matter is indestructible and that motion is 
continuous, we assert by implication that force 
is persistent, that the force manifest in the know- 
able universe is constant, can neither be increased 
nor diminished. It, the above assertion, is the 
deepest truth which analytic science can disclose." 

Fiske deducts two thoughts from this discus- 
sion which interest us. The first is that " Motion 
is not force but one of the manifestations of 
force, and so the various modes of motion are 
differently conditioned manifestations of force." 
And the other, " We know force not in itself, but 
only as revealed to consciousness in matter and 
motion." 

God and force, as used by these thinkers, ap- 
pear synonymous as applied to the material world. 
They both assert that God or force is all that is 
known to man through the use of his senses. 
Moses further presents the activity of the uni- 
verse as manifesting, expressing and conveying 
the ideas of God as the body or person of man 
manifests, expresses and conveys him to his fel- 
low-man. Matter, therefore, not being knowable 
to sense, is not a subject for consideration. We 
must of necessity confine ourselves to the mani- 
festations of force or the spirit of God. This 
the Bible does. It is the activities of God and 
man and man's ultimate achievements amid this 
creation with which it is concerned ; while the only 
portion of science, not supported by inference 



6 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

and conjecture, deals with the laws, principles and 
phenomena of energy. 

What is Moses' conception of God as creator? 
We find in his explanation that God did not form 
and construct the universe in the way that man 
creates, by working upon and with what already 
existed. The idea of personal effort is absent, 
that is, one physical force operating other phys- 
ical forces, or kind operating kind. It was rather 
as man lights with electricity by the introduction 
of an energy which was heretofore absent. This 
energy was from God. Moses presents God as 
expressing himself in the persistent force of the 
universe and, as creator, is not divorced from his 
creation as a man is separated from his produc- 
tion. Each manifestation of force is a further 
development of the energy from God. Force ob- 
tains its life from God and expresses Him. Thus, 
we know electricity as light, motive power, light- 
ning, curative agent, conveyor of intelligence, 
and so on, so we may know force or God, the 
creator, as adhesion, gravity, electricity, light, 
life, et cetera. This force is an evidence of the 
constant presence of God who maintains it. This 
must be true, for we cannot logically conceive 
of a constant, ever-present energy or force with- 
out a constant ever-present cause. God is there- 
fore the motive power which causes, sustains, and 
reproduces constantly the entire physical uni- 
verse. 

Moses presents the varied manifestation of 



MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION 7 

force as the Will or Word or Decree or Laws of 
God. Thus " And God said, Let there be light, 
and there was light." Force is here under the 
Will of God because it emanates from God, quite 
as a man has control of his arm because it is a 
part of his body. Man does not present a per- 
fect analogy but may help us to conceive of this 
control. The artist before his rough stone con- 
ceives his finished statue. He wills its construc- 
tion. His hands perform the biddings of his will 
and represent in their activity the will or decree 
or laws of that artist. Moses would thus present 
God the creator, except God himself maintains 
the force. 

Into imperceptible matter (atoms) God intro- 
duced a power coming from Himself. This 
power controlled and fashioned matter into a 
sensuous form. Subsequent sentences imply that 
this was the case ; and the investigations of scien- 
tists also point to this conclusion. 

" God said, Let there be light, and there was 
light." Upon this earliest form of creation was 
brought into action the chemical principles which 
cause illumination, namely, combustion, electric- 
ity, phosphorescence, and so on. These forms 
of obtaining light may or may not have all been 
included. It is only stated that some form of 
illumination was introduced. This light was at 
first universal, or pervaded the entire mass. But 
soon laws or processes limited the operation of 
these principles ; for instance, oxygen and hydro- 



8 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

gen in proper proportions (water) will not burn 
by laws we find in nature to-day, thus dividing 
the light by restricting the operations of the 
chemical processes. The presence of light was 
day ; its absence was night. 

" God said, Let there be a firmament in the 
midst of the water, and let it divide the waters 
from the waters." This was a division of matter 
into distinct parts, the earth and the starry won- 
derland, using a lighter, invisible and yet tangible 
form of matter, an atmosphere or firmament, to 
separate them. The two succeeding verses state 
that He accomplished this, and named the firma- 
ment Heaven, closing the second period of cre- 
ation. The original elements of the entire uni- 
verse must therefore be the same. Astronomers 
tell us that meteors and the spectrum of the sun's 
rays show no original elements which are not 
found on the earth. The composition of the 
whole universe is evidently the same. 

The process of solidification continued. First 
the attraction of atoms into molecules; then the 
molecules into a closer relation until liquid 
(water) was formed; finally, a solid (land) ap- 
peared and rose above the water. Upon this land 
and water came life to organize and animate mat- 
ter. Moses treats life as nothing new, simply a 
modification of the original force which is the 
cause of all, another manifestation of the " Spirit 
of God." 






MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION 9 

First came plant life* The growth of plants 
is due to what is called " capillary attraction." 
Gray's " Botany " thus explains this process : 
" Whenever two fluids of different density are 
separated by a membrane whether of dead or liv- 
ing substance, or are separated by a porous par- 
tition, a flow takes place through the partition, 
mainly toward the heavier fluid, until this is 
brought to the same density as the other. The 
contents of the cells of which the plant is com- 
posed being therefore always much denser than 
the moisture outside (which is water containing 
a little carbonic acid, etc., and a very minute 
quantity of earthy matter) this moisture is con- 
stantly drawn into the roots." 

The water is constantly evaporating through 
the leaves, causing the upper cells to be denser 
than the lower, which produces the flow upward 
into the leaves. " So in absorbing moisture by 
the roots, and in conveying the sap or the juices 
from cell to cell and from one part to another, 
the plant appears to make use of a physical or in- 
organic force; but it manages and directs this 
as the purposes of the vegetable economy de- 
mand. Now, when the proper materials are 
brought to the growing points, growth takes 
place ; and in growth the plant moves the particles 
of matter, arranging the fabric in a manner 
which we cannot explain by any mechanical laws. 
The organs are not shaped by any external 



10 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

forces ; they shape themselves and take such forms 
and positions as the nature of each part or plant 
requires." 

These " forms and positions " could be taken 
in obedience to laws which would limit, regulate 
and control the act of depositing the particles. 
We find the same thing taking place without life 
in mineral crystals. Water charged with min- 
erals in solution, when depositing the particles of 
the mineral, " take such forms and positions as 
the nature of each " crystal or kind of mineral 
requires and " are not shaped by any exterior 
forces ; they shape themselves." Nor are we any 
better able to explain the growth of the mineral 
crystal " by any mechanical laws " than we are 
the arrangement and control of matter in the 
plant. Evidently they are identical. 

Moses' position here is not at all untenable, but 
is, on the contrary, undoubtedly true. Vegeta- 
tion is but a further application of the force 
already used. The earth, bringing forth grasses 
and herbs yielding seed, and the trees, was there- 
fore but a further volitionary control by God 
of original force, — the process of growth de- 
pending for its commencement upon light, heat 
and moisture. Life is a higher, more intricate 
manifestation of force. 

Mosaic writers now turn to the portion of cre- 
ation which was above the firmament. The prin- 
ciples of light confined largely to that other 
portion were now collected into luminaries or 



MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION 11 

places to produce light. The sun and moon were 
formed by the same force that created the earth, 
and also the stars. It does not appear that activ- 
ity was suspended in this portion heretofore, but 
the culmination of it marked the end of this pe- 
riod of time. By means of these luminaries God 
caused seasons, days and years. The other days 
were periods of time designated by the completion 
of a creation. 

The same continuity of the power employed 
and the control of that power by the exercise of 
the will, is seen in the account of the creation of 
fish, fowl and animal. What does this imply? 
Two things: First, the organisms constituting 
fish, fowl and animal are mechanical, that is, they 
use principles which are or may be used with 
inanimate nature when force is applied ; and, sec- 
ond, that, the fish, fowl and animal are controlled 
by a brain which works automatically. This 
brain is like the telegraph instrument acting only 
when acted upon. This does not exclude the idea 
of instinct and intelligence and thought in these 
creatures in so far as they may be automatic and 
have the source of the series of the mental phe- 
nomena from without. 

It is a well-known fact to-day that all known 
mechanical principles are employed in the organs 
of animals and many that have not yet been used 
successfully. It is also beyond question that the 
operation of force in all life whatsoever follows 
mechanical and chemical principles and by their 



12 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

use alone accomplishes its ends. The action of 
the muscles, heart and nerves finds its counterpart 
in the lever, steam chest and telegraph wires of 
to-day. The power or the source of energy in 
each instance is the same. Physical man, the 
highest form of animal life and created last, is 
defined to-day by some as the " instrument by 
which man approaches nature." It differs from 
man-made tools in its completeness, its ability to 
repair itself and its method of control. In man 
is the highest development of brain, and we will 
therefore study him to know whether scientists 
have found anything other than force in the phy- 
sique and brain of animal or physical man. 



CHAPTER II 
PHYSICAL MAN 

Moses presents animal and physical man as a 
manifestation of the persistent force of the uni- 
verse or the " Spirit of God." Does our knowl- 
edge substantiate this ? 

Physical man is a complete, harmonious and 
perfectly constructed aggregation of interde- 
pendent mechanisms. The heart beats that the 
rest of the body may live. The other functions 
are active that the heart may beat. The exquisite 
muscles of the hand are as necessary to the heart, 
since they gather sustenance, prepare and place 
it in possession of the digestive organs, as are the 
digestive organs themselves. Nothing useless, 
nothing wasted ; each is needed that there may be 
a perfect whole. 

Not carelessly nor lightly are these organs 
placed, but so that each, in the performance of 
its duty, may be least retarded and require the 
least expenditure of force. Could the heart be 
better located, or the lungs be more convenient to 
the air, and receive protection? Could the eye 
be more cunningly enthroned or the nostrils scent 
the air so well elsewhere? 

Is physical man mere machinery? Cannot all 
this be said of the mechanisms of man's invention, 
except in the degree of perfection? Are not the 
13 



14 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

mechanisms of man harmonious? Are they not 
interdependent one part upon another? Are they 
not complete machines, and perfect in a degree? 
Cannot we say the same of the locomotive that we 
say of physical man, with the above exception? 

The boiler exists that the other mechanisms 
may move, some other parts exist that the boiler 
may be effective, as the pump, the water tank, 
the fire-box, valves, etc. There is little or noth- 
ing useless or wasted; each part is needed that 
there may be a perfect whole. The same econ- 
omy of location is sought as in physical man. 
The difference between the man-made locomotive 
and the God-made man is in degree of complete- 
ness and perfectness, not in the essential idea of 
creation. Both are constructed to perform work, 
to respond to a motive power, to be directed, to be 
used. We know that the body of man is an in- 
strument. We know that its parts are consumed 
by friction. We know of its final exhaustion, 
and that, when worn out, it must be laid aside. 
Its analogy to the machine is apparent. 

In a machine, when we understood its method 
of control, its activities will constitute final and 
conclusive evidence of the purpose of construc- 
tion. The slotted steel shaft, gearing, tread, 
thread, of a sewing machine are but subjects for 
conjecture to a novice when inactive, but when 
put in motion and carefully followed from spool- 
holder, through slots, needle eye, shuttle, will 
prove beyond a doubt why they were made. 



PHYSICAL MAN 15 

Every machine of man will respond to the same 
careful study and bring to light the reason of its 
existence. If this is true of man's handiwork, 
may we not expect that the same method of in- 
quiry will deduce the truth from God's? Let us 
study the method of control in physical man, that 
we may better understand his activities. Then we 
may study these activities so as to know the pur- 
pose of his creation. 

The direct control of the body is accomplished 
through the wonderful system of nerves. These 
are divided into two different and distinct sys- 
tems. The one controls the reconstructive and 
propagative organs, whose actions are not under 
the will of man. The other system lies in the 
arms, legs, face, or such organs as exhibit control 
by the will. Those beyond control are necessary 
for the preservation of the organism. A close 
study of the stomach and heart proves that in the 
preservation of the body their purpose is fully 
accomplished. Simple maintenance of person 
does not interest us. It is what is dependent on 
the will that in its workings must reveal the inten- 
tion of man's creation. 

The nerves of sensation are beyond control, ex- 
cept in so far as they may be irritated through 
the nerve of motion. The eye will see, the ear 
will hear, the body will feel, unless we by some ac- 
tion prevent. We have, then, control of the body 
through the nerve of motion only. The purpose 
of man's existence, therefore, can be found only 



16 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

in the activity of the nerve of motion. This is 
the only means of expression that he has. His 
whole physical existence must be bound up in its 
operations. 

The seat of this government lies in the brain 
and spinal cord, which are constructed of the 
same matter as the nerves. The brain is divided 
into several different parts, which perform differ- 
ent functions in maintaining control and direct- 
ing the body. The cerebrum is thought to be 
the seat of intelligence, the cerebellum to control 
the muscles and their harmonious workings, and 
another portion the sense of sight, et cetera. 

The action of the brain, when closely examined, 
does not give evidence of being different from 
other molecular activity of force. There is prob- 
ably no difference. The brain does not grow in 
size, when used, but in the amount of surface 
that is exposed, by increasing the number and 
depths of its convolutions or folds. The sensa- 
tions and information seem to center here and 
exchange or transmit their activity to something 
exterior. As growth takes place, the brain en- 
larges not its size but its contact or ability to 
communicate with this power or faculty. That 
which knows of these sensations or information 
we term perception. 

The perceptive faculty evidently rests upon 
and receives from the brain the sensations from 
the world and the organism. This connection is 
so intimate that no activity escapes the perceptive 



PHYSICAL MAN IT 

faculty, when alert ; yet the separation is so com- 
plete that the perceptive faculty can ignore and 
refuse to receive the idea presented. If a man is 
engrossed in thought when spoken to, although 
the information is perfectly carried to the brain, 
the perceptive faculty refuses attention to the 
spoken word, as well as to the other sights and 
pounds. This power of refusing attention is 
found in all higher animal life. It marks the 
final action of the nerves of sensation and infor- 
mation, the culmination of the activities of the 
physical man alone. The government and con- 
trol of the nerves of motion must arise in the ac- 
tivities of this other portion of man and animal, 
the soul. 

Physical man is a mechanism. Is it automatic- 
ally controlled ? As an engineer opens and closes 
the valves to the steam chest and dictates thereby 
whether or not there shall be motion, so in the 
physical man or animal the power which com- 
mands the nerve currents governs. This power 
is the will. The will to accomplish its ends must 
transmit activity to the brain and nerves. We 
are therefore still dealing with force in another 
and higher manifestation, but governed by differ- 
ent laws. 

The will acts in accord with the environment 
and the peculiarity of the creature in which it is 
found. The wolf amid plenty retires from its 
foes ; in want, it seeks food at any peril. Other 
animals seek their food and spend their idle time 



18 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

in quiet seclusion, in playfulness, in work or 
travel. The bird, with wings, seeks refuge in dis- 
tance, and in its quiet hours displays the same 
variety of activity. Man displays the same dif- 
ference in the action of his will. But the will 
is the throttle by which the nerve is awakened to 
action or quieted to repose. 

The adjustment to the needs of the moment 
and the similarity of expression under like condi- 
tions show that there is a power which controls the 
will. This adjustment comes from a recognition 
of the circumstance, what the consequence will be, 
and a conclusion as to the proper act. This 
formula we follow consciously or unconsciously 
in determining the act. To illustrate: We see 
the storm approaching, we realize the possible 
consequences and seek a safe refuge. We see 
the beautiful flower, we appreciate its beauty and 
fragrance, and step closer to enjoy. We see the 
face of the debauchee, we recognize his condition 
and shrink from his way of life and shun it. 
This we term reason. 

Reason may act without our being conscious 
of it. Allow a sudden danger to arise and the 
action of this faculty will prepare some defense 
or action for escape. With reason alone all simi- 
lar circumstances would produce identically the 
same effect on all creatures. The sea-gull and 
the thrush, the lion and the fox, the whole human 
family would be affected alike when the thunder- 
ing roar of the approaching storm was heard. 



PHYSICAL MAN 19 

But the sea-gull breasts the stormy wave with 
glee, while the thrush is hidden in the deep recesses 
of the wood. The lion meets the storm with 
roars of defiance or fear, while the fox in silence 
seeks his lair. Man meets it with every degree of 
expression, from abject horror to absolute indif- 
ference. 

These are all expressions of reason. Even the 
horror is due to reason asserting itself. The 
danger is coming, its results may be terrible, yet 
no refuge is sufficient for absolute safety. There 
is evidently a further influence. The will may 
be controlled contrary to the normal conclusions 
based upon these considerations. 

There is, in man and animal alike, something 
that responds to exterior environment which the 
reason must take into account. This we call dis- 
position, using the term as Webster defines it, 
meaning " the constitutional habits of mind." 
When one of these qualities asserts itself strongly 
and violently, it is called passion. The disposi- 
tion comprises qualities such as affection, liking, 
disliking, anger, fear, carefulness, anxiety, pride, 
scorn, gayety, moroseness, brutality, kindness, 
sorrow, grief, sympathy, and so on. To illus- 
trate: Anger is aroused by an offense, fear by 
impending danger, pride by comparison of condi- 
tions, sorrow by undesirable consequences. 

The presence or lack of these qualities occa- 
sioned by heredity, environment or education gov- 
erns the reason and determines the manner in 



20 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

which a circumstance will be met. They give a 
variety of actions under similar circumstances. 
The lion with courage meets the thunder of the 
heavens with defiance, while the fox, lacking cour- 
age, but sly and cunning, silently seeks her ref- 
uge. Man, in whom the variety of expression is 
limited only by the number of men and variety 
of circumstance, displays every shade and color- 
ing of these qualities. The approaching storm 
paints horror in one face, anxiety in another, won- 
der in another, admiration in another; and men 
will flee before, carefully watch, stand in doubt or 
be held by the fascination of its approach. 

Passion is the supremacy of some quality of 
disposition acting in utter disregard of all other 
considerations. It makes a demand overshadow- 
ing all dictates that reason may give, and uses the 
organism regardless of consequences to attain its 
object. The welfare of the body is overlooked. 
Anything which stands in the way is cast aside. 
It raises and casts out all else and controls the 
organism for its ends. Reason acts only to fur- 
ther it, and circumstances are no longer consid- 
ered as before except simply as to how their inter- 
ference may be overcome. Anger, sensual love, 
fear, pride, all use the body thus, and the influ- 
ence on the body is such as to warrant our using 
the Latin word, passor, in order to express it. 

However, reason must act rationally in reach- 
ing its conclusions upon the ideas admitted to 
consideration, but when anger and hatred control 



PHYSICAL MAN 21 

they exclude from the consideration all that will 
not further their ends. Thus when anger is in 
control, the feelings and comfort of our antag- 
onist are not considerations, but only what will 
work his disadvantage and discomfiture. Reason 
works perfectly rationally upon these, as the re- 
sult too often proves. 

The series of mental phenomena as far as we 
have traced them are initiated from without, and 
the variety and prevalence of the traits of disposi- 
tion in any creature are due to exterior influence. 
Therefore man or animal thus constructed would 
be a perfect automaton, acting only as acted 
upon. Animal life is in truth the perfect auto- 
matons of God. They are sustained and repaired 
from within themselves, making but one demand 
upon their own activity, that for food. They are 
controlled by the wonderful telegraphic system of 
nerves which center in the brain. Here the ac- 
tivity is transmitted to the perceptive faculty, 
upon whose conceptions reason, memory, disposi- 
tion, act. These actions culminate in a conclu- 
sion upon which the will acts. The power that 
governs the laws of nature and the laws of 
growth and activity within these creations is 
therefore perfect master of them. 

Moses presents the entire universe as an expres- 
sion of the Will or Purpose of God, He being 
the power or the cause of all activity, guiding, 
directing and controlling all by a system of cause 
and effect which we term laws. There is nothing 



22 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

further needed to complete the work of creation 
and perform all the duties which the Almighty 
demands of his creations. 

The fish of the sea, the cattle upon the land re- 
spond to the command to " Be fruitful, multiply 
and replenish the earth," and this is all that is 
required of them. The further purposes which 
they accomplish are controlled by God and man. 
Man, as we now have seen him, is capable of per- 
forming the demands of God to " Be fruitful, 
multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it, 
and have dominion over the fish of the seas and 
over the fowl of the air and over every living 
thing that moveth upon the earth." Man is oc- 
cupied with these duties. 

Moses finds but one difference in the duties 
of these two creations. Man had the added duty 
of controlling the forces of nature and the whole 
animal world. This raises the question of 
whether any further power than we have noted is 
required to gain this control. 

Man gains control of a material force or ani- 
mal by comprehending the laws which govern 
them and administering those laws. Therefore 
a keen perception, assisted by acute faculties and 
a body, are the factors in gaining this control. 
This is but a degree of perfection. It does not 
mean that the supremacy of man requires a differ- 
ence of faculty, but a difference in their power, 
scope and acuteness. 

The faculties together constitute the soul. 



PHYSICAL MAN 23 

A proof of this assertion must be an appeal 
the privacy of our own being and learn of its 
to our own consciousness. We must retire into 
workings. We find in doing this that our con- 
ceptions of truth limit our ability to think about 
it. For instance, we could think of but the 
anatomy of man until we conceived of organs 
that performed a duty in rearing and maintain- 
ing his physique. This is true of any subject, 
and demonstrates that this is a limit in one di- 
rection of the soul, or we would be able to think 
and reason and act on what we cannot conceive. 
This is impossible. 

All activity of the faculties finds its culmina- 
tion in a conclusion upon which is based a convic- 
tion that directs action. The will determines 
whether or not the act is to take place, whether the 
result be merely a conviction or an action. This 
is also the limit of possibility in this direction. 
We therefore must conclude that these activities 
in all their variations, which are legion, consti- 
tute a whole which we term soul. 

Man with a soul makes creation complete. 

God created the earth. He created light. He 
brought forth dry land. He clothed it with 
vegetation. He brought forth warmth, so 
necessary to existence. He formed animals and 
placed man to gain a sustenance from and con- 
trol over all these forces and creatures, still hold- 
ing a perfect sovereignty over all by the exercise 
of His laws. 



24 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

This perfects material creation and forms a 
perfect whole. The world, as a whole, will now 
move as God decreed and nothing is wanted to 
perfect His wonderful machinery. Here Moses 
conceives of a period of rest in which the 
Almighty ceased from further initial or progres- 
sive work in material creation. Rest is not a 
cessation of activity, but a change. Man rests to 
allow the reconstructive organs full play. This 
does not indicate that God " went off and left his 
machine " but that He ceased creative work of 
this nature. 

As the following chapter begins the creation of 
a soul in man, we may conclude that Moses wished 
to state that God ceased material creation and 
began the development or creation of soul life, 
— -or that the time element in material creation 
was so vast as compared with the time element in 
the construction of soul life that it was not a 
material consideration. 

It was, at least, a period in which the energy 
of the Almighty operated in accord with the laws 
already formed, the whole performing smoothly 
and without interruption the purpose which we 
have already noted. This is the case with the 
world to-day, with the exception of man, and we 
must look for something in man which has not 
heretofore appeared, in order to account for this 
disturbance. 



CHAPTER III 

SPIRITUAL MAN, THE PURPOSE OF 
CREATION 

There has been in the foregoing investigation 
no evidence of a final purpose. The energy is 
expended without an accomplishment aside from 
its own activities. Man, as the evident goal, 
must in his activities portray the reason for this 
materialism. All was not made to merely run. 
We have noted the control of the body by the 
soul. We must now investigate the activities of 
that soul to ascertain the final purpose. 

Man thus far has been accounted for in the 
light of an exterior circumstance. The exterior 
surroundings became the initial or introductory 
cause for the act or condition. The exterior 
surroundings arouse the interior faculties and 
led to the consequences. The action resulting is 
always directed upon, toward or against the ob- 
ject arousing it. Anger, affection, fear, are all 
thus expressed. But these are by no means the 
limit of the expressions of the soul. We see oc- 
casionally a man who rises above them and does 
not permit these baser qualities of his soul to ex- 
press themselves. We behold actions of men that 
cannot be accounted for by these qualities alone, 
and relationships in which the exterior considera- 
25 



26 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

tions and the needs of the body are thrown aside 
for some further consideration. 

A man reasons with himself. Two ways have 
been presented in which to relate himself with his 
fellow-man. He may enter the trafficking in 
liquor as a business or become a grocer. His 
memory presents to him two natural phenomena 
of men plying their traffic in these goods. He 
considers the consequences. He beholds the 
saloonkeeper securing the object of his desires 
with ease and abundance, while the grocer receives 
meagre returns by hard and continuous toil. He 
sees one accorded dishonor, the other honor. The 
pride of the man, or his desire for gain, or that 
quality foremost in his disposition, may now step 
in and throw the verdict either way. He may 
say " I am willing to work harder for what I get 
rather than lose my social standing and self- 
respect." He may say " I want w r ealth and will 
endeavor to uphold my social standing by it." 
His cunning might assert itself and say " I will 
cover my occupation by a subterfuge." It would 
be impossible to enumerate the numerous qualities 
of disposition which might bias this decision. 
The soul of the man has acted on this conception 
or consideration. 

He is now presented with another matter which 
reason must take into account. "Is it right?" 
" Right " to the mind of man seems to be repre- 
sented by the idea of " straight " in nature. His 
actions are right while he acts " straight ", or 



SPIRITUAL MAN 27 

continuously with his own best interests and high- 
est good. Has this man not done so? Necessity 
for existence led him to seek a means of supplying 
it. He sought the method employed by those 
about him. He weighed the possibilities of the 
different plans before him for consideration and 
decided for the best according to his point of 
view. He has acted straight or in accord with 
all considerations thus far presented but the 
question " Is it right? " 

This question bespeaks of some other duty 
which man owes to himself and others which as 
yet has not been taken into account, and some 
possibilities of which he is more or less aware. 
To ask the question, " Is it right"? a man must 
be fully aware or conscious of the acts of the 
soul and the body. In order to do this he must 
rise above the automatic action which we have 
noted. Or are we to consider the question of 
John Stuart Mill as being capable of an answer 
in the affirmative? " Can something which from 
the hypothesis is but a series of feelings be aware 
of itself as a series?" To this question scien- 
tists give a negative reply on the ground that 
that which knows cannot be identical with what 
is known, any more than a weight with what is 
weighted. We have no grounds for the belief 
that this ability to bring to question the actions 
of the soul arises from any ability within the 
soul, for should this be the case any creature 
possessing faculties would be conscious of the 



28 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

action of those faculties. This is, however, only 
found in man, and is a power which he may or 
may not have according to his use or neglect of 
this possibility of his being. 

The soul may be developed to a very high 
degree without any evidence of control. This is 
shown by the abnormal development of the ability 
to reason at the expense of the qualities of dis- 
position, or vice versa. The cultivation of the 
perception at the expense of the reason, and so 
on, shows a lack of supervision or control over 
or knowledge of the soul. We must therefore 
conclude that, if not an attribute of the soul, it 
is from a different and higher power in man and 
marks the dividing line between the soul and the 
spirit of man. 

This power to review and call into question 
the actions of the soul is the power which enables 
man to know his condition and secure a systematic 
development of this soul. We noted that the 
soul takes into consideration the circumstances 
of existence in their minute details but it hesi- 
tates before consummating an act of moment for 
further guidance. It is as a pilot of a ship, con- 
trolled and directed by the many sails, who must 
still look to the compass to assure himself of the 
proper course to pursue. 

The action of the spirit of man seems to be but 
a further appeal to the reason through the per- 
ceptive faculties and inaugurates a new series of 
mental activities. The question "Is it right"? 



SPIRITUAL MAN 29 

put in form of the saloon proposal is, " What 
will be the effect upon my companion's and my 
own soul and body in the business relations which 
I am considering? " In this we see that the per- 
ceptive faculties are recognizing a new subject 
for consideration, and the same action of the 
soul is taking place as when presented with a new 
material circumstance. It is the action of the 
reason seeking to ascertain the consequences of 
what is about to occur or is up for investigation. 
This we have before termed the second step of 
reason. The perceptive faculties are now em- 
ployed to ascertain " How will this business affect 
us?" or, in other words, "What qualities or 
faculties of our soul do we really cultivate in 
this business and how does it affect the body ? " 
The decision is now biased by our disposition as 
much as in our former consideration. " Do we 
desire these results ? " is answered in as many dif- 
ferent ways as there are different dispositions. 

However, although the decisions are widely at 
variance, the consideration presented by the 
spirit is identically the same. It brings to the 
perceptive faculty the idea of soul itself and 
makes this an important question in every serious 
conclusion of reason. Thus the material circum- 
stances and the spiritual circumstances (or the 
conditions of the soul) sometimes present two 
forces struggling for mastery in formulating 
reason's final conclusion. The one presents the 
needs of the physical and the joys of the mere 



30 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

animal existence, while the other calls the soul to 
a consideration of its own laws and demands the 
right to govern and secure uniform development. 

If the material creation and the spirit are but 
the avenues by which God reaches the perceptive 
faculty of man, we must therefore conclude that 
the real being of man is limited to the soul. This 
soul must be the source of the individuality of 
man or be that which differentiates one man from 
another. The soul may therefore be defined as 
man, whose activity collects all the details pre- 
sented and from them evolves a conclusion upon 
which he acts. After the body has reached its 
maturity the only growth that man makes is in 
the ability to comprehend the circumstances pre- 
sented to him, in ability to reason and think 
relative to them, in graces of disposition etc., etc. 
In other words the soul, after physical growth, 
is the only portion of man that can expand and 
grow. 

The spirit marks a new realm as distinct as 
either the physical or the soul. Moses presents 
it as the breath of God touching the magic key 
to the soul, perception, and bringing to our minds 
the considerations which give purpose above the 
material, and a uniform growth to the soul. This 
must be the original purpose of creation, a full, 
uniform development of the soul. 

The spirit of man is productive of a widening 
and developing manhood and womanhood which 
is the true joy of life. The influence of the 



SPIRITUAL MAN 31 

spiritual is general, not specific. It does not 
seek immediate good for the body only, but a 
future gain in the strengthening of the soul, as 
of first importance. Thus it gives us a long look 
ahead to a goal not physical, but beyond the 
realm of sense. It does not change with the 
changing environment, thus giving firmness to 
character. The expression of the spiritual dis- 
position is such as love finds in affection, patience 
in endurance, peace in tranquility, goodness in 
morality. The difference lies in the elevation 
of the physical as a means to an end, toward the 
attainment of which the soul moulds the cir- 
cumstances of life. 

This forms not a perfected man, but a perfect 
man. A spiritual man is the aim of all creation 
and is its highest accomplishment. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE PROBLEM OF LIFE 

The Mosaic writers have explained the created 
universe and the laws of nature. They have 
placed man, a soul controlled by laws and aware 
of itself fully, amid this creation. 

What has been the history of this soul? This 
question is the real question which all times ask 
of the past. What has the soul been? What 
has it done? What was the result of these ex- 
periences? It is this knowledge that explains 
the present to us and makes us know ourselves. 
The laws of nature and of the soul must have 
operated and produced the growth and develop- 
ment existing in accord with the laws as they 
now act. 

The story of Adam, Eve and their progeny 
was used to make this explanation or tell the ex- 
periences of the soul in its earlier life and picture 
the resultant condition. The result would not be 
possible in the life of a single man. The fact 
that the story was told in the future tense by the 
writer indicates that the full accomplishment 
would be a matter of time. It is as though we 
would accumulate all the growth and activity 
which in the last hundred years have brought to 
the service of man the expansive power of steam, 
and caused the soul of one man to enact them foe 

32 



THE PROBLEM OF LIFE S3 

the purpose of displaying these mental activities, 
development and growth, and also its influence 
on his character and the progress of man during 
this time. 

It is in this way that Adam and the woman 
have been called to live the life story before the 
day of Moses, — quite as our writers to-day, 
from their knowledge of customs, habits, thoughts 
and the human soul, paint pictures of antiquity 
in stories. 

There are general laws, experiences common to 
all, emotions that are identical under similar cir- 
cumstances and results we all know are produced 
in certain given ways that enable us to read more 
or less accurately the life story of each other, of 
peoples and of times. These processes when 
understood form the basis of any theory or Way 
of Life which is to be explained to man. Man's 
future can be fashioned aright only by basing an 
ideal future on a known past whose resultant 
present leads to discontent. 

As scientists look into history and see the 
growth of present strong characteristics of the 
soul, so Mosaic writers familiar with the soul as 
it then existed go back to explain the process 
which had created these characteristics. We 
must therefore look into the soul, learn of it and 
discover these laws and apply this knowledge if 
we are to understand the Mosaic interpretation. 

Its wonderful breadth and depth alone be- 
speaks a multitude of minds, delving in a mul- 



34 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

titude of ways, bringing to light the wisdom of 
the Creator. Only as we know more of the laws, 
processes and circumstances of life can we fully 
approximate the details of this laconic explana- 
tion. 

Consciousness makes the soul aware of itself. 
This self-knowledge or perception is a necessity 
if the soul is to have a life unto itself. The 
knowledge of the body, its sensations, its expe- 
riences and its surroundings, which the percep- 
tive faculty is aware of, cause us to live in the 
person. When we confine ourselves to these ex- 
periences we are living in the animal nature. 

Consciousness of the soul's activities in a 
similar way causes life in the soul. A soul con- 
scious of its own activities, its powers and graces, 
its possibilities and its surroundings can live in 
these activities. Such a one can be said to be 
" a living soul." " God breathed into his nos- 
trils the breath of life, and man became a living 
soul." It is thus that the Mosaic writers ex- 
plained the consciousness of man and its influ- 
ence on the soul. 

Adam is represented as possessing the abilities 
of body and soul in their normal or original con- 
dition. He was a perfect man but not a per- 
fected man. He was perfect as a creation but 
not evolved or completed as a being. His powers 
were yet to be developed. 

Now comes the tragedy of life, the conflict be- 
tween the physical life and the life in the soul. 



THE PROBLEM OF LIFE 35 

This conflict must be waged in the soul itself, 
senses upon beauty, pleasures, and possibilities 
for here alone is there a possibility of such a 
struggle. The perceptive faculty, fed by the 
surrounding animal man, is also aware, through 
consciousness, of the glories, joys and possibil- 
ities of the soul. Within this soul the conflict 
must be waged and the decision made. The pic- 
ture given is of a soul acting amid these con- 
siderations and receiving the consequences of the 
choice made. God, appealing to him by cause 
and effect in the natural world conveyed by the 
senses, further presented to him the resultant of 
the laws within the soul. This is the constant 
and true communion and converse enjoyed by 
every soul with God. We can only hope to fol- 
low this scene in so far as the laws are known to 
us. 

The soul was located in a place of wondrous 
beauty, earth, and in it everything that heart 
could wish or fancy desire. The earth was sub- 
dued for man. She brought forth indigenously 
fruit for his sustenance. In this garden was a 
stream of water which watered all ; here were col- 
lected all the plants and animals. 

Mosaic writers say " The tree of life also in the 
midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge 
of good and evil." About this " tree of knowl- 
edge of good and evil " they have placed the 
determining choice of the man. The expressions 
are evidently intended to be suggestive of essential 



36 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

soul food upon which the soul growth and main- 
tenance depend quite as the body depends upon 
plant life for sustenance. The soul maintains its 
vigor and accomplishes growth through action 
upon the conceptions coming to perception 
through the body and consciousness. As con- 
sciousness makes the soul capable of individual 
and separate life by being aware of itself and its 
surroundings, and furnishes the soul food for 
growth in consideration of the laws of soul-life, 
we may naturally infer that the suggestive name 
of " the tree of life " applied to this conscious- 
ness in man. So also the body, as the avenue 
through which the information of earth comes, 
capable of knowing the greatest good as ex- 
pressed in the conscious soul-life of others and 
fathoming the depths of evil in the deepest an- 
imal degradation, may be recognized as " the tree 
of knowledge of good and evil. 5 ' 

In this garden, the world, Adam was to reign 
in joy and happiness. What an opportunity this ! 
What a character he could rear. The injunc- 
tion of the Almighty was simple : " Of every 
tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat ; but of 
the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou 
shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatest 
thereof thou shalt surely die." 

This is true only of the soul. If it loses the 
power of consciousness by lack of use, its in- 
dependent individual life is gone, while the body 
and its existence alone engross the soul. 



THE PROBLEM OF LIFE 37 

In normal man the laws of his varied nature 
are in harmony. None demands indulgence to 
excess or disturbs the highest and ultimate pur- 
pose of all. Mosaic writers, however, knew that 
some of these laws were indulged to the detri- 
ment of all and they must explain the process 
by which it took place. This story is universal 
biography. The explanation of the starting of 
an indulgence of any kind to the detriment of 
man is identical in most ways, being different 
only in detail. 

Adam was alone. His social nature demanded 
a companion for the perfect enjoyment of the 
world and the perfect development of character. 
The sympathy of a companion, who can appre- 
ciate their thoughts, hopes and joys, is one of 
the greatest aids to pure and strong souls. And 
Adam, after knowing all the beasts of the field, 
and the fowls of the air, found among them none 
that were spiritual, none that could enter the life 
he was leading and help him with their apprecia- 
tion, fellowship and kindly criticism. God there- 
fore bestowed consciousness, the rib or structural 
support of the spiritual life, upon a woman, and 
Adam, recognizing her kindred thoughts, aims, 
and hopes, was drawn to her. The intimacy 
grew until Adam realized that they were kindred 
by the bond of a common spirit and declared that 
they two were one because she had the spirit that 
was once his own alone. He recognized this re- 
lationship to be the most helpful possible to both 



38 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

man and woman, and severed all the relations of 
his former life for those he had entered upon with 
this spiritual woman, that together they might 
use this existence under the guidance of their 
common spirit to form a strong, pure and noble 
character. 

The excitement of lust and sensual pleasures 
was at this time unknown to them, and the person, 
although naked as in all other animal life, aroused 
in them none of the gross desires which in the 
minds of man to-day would be awakened owing 
to the hereditary taints which time and right 
habits of thought can alone overcome. 

The suggestion of animal pleasures came to the 
perceptions of Adam and Eve. The animal life 
about them gave this. The conversation here 
given might have many different settings in de- 
tail, but the mental process of the action of the 
soul is found in every life. It is not necessary 
that the serpent speak in words. The life of the 
animal spoke plainly enough and then came the 
demands of their own bodies to aid. 

Naturally they observed the j oys and pleasures 
which were engrossing the thoughts and filling 
+he lives of the creatures who knew nothing of 
their own higher joys. Their animal natures were 
all they possessed. They tasted of the sensual 
pleasures and the woman curiously asked why 
they did not. She remembered that God had told 
them they should not eat of the tree, " lest ye 
die." This was incomprehensible to her. They 



THE PROBLEM OF LIFE 39 

were the same in appearance and she was inclined 
to think that there was neither sense nor truth in 
this statement. The idea came to her : " You'll 
not die. God knows when you taste of the joys 
of sense you will become a judge of these things 
for yourself, whether they be good or evil. You 
don't know what they are now." 

This appeared to her as true. She saw that 
the animal appeared to enjoy the senses and 
could see no good reason why she should not, and 
then when she knew for herself and really found 
them evil, she would quit these things and live her 
former life. So she began to enjoy the sensa- 
tions that seemed pleasures, became fascinated 
with them, and persuaded Adam also to partake. 
She probably began in mere physical sports, and 
permitted them to occupy her thoughts. This 
was perhaps followed by pride of sense, growth 
of appetites which were right and natural when 
not indulged to excess. In other words she fol- 
lowed the process so well known to-day by which 
purity of thought, nobility of aim and high as- 
pirations are destroyed and the body is made the 
whole aim and object of life, resulting in the 
degradation of the soul and in misery. 

Adam and Eve were capable of reviewing these 
acts of their souls. When the excitement of their 
new pleasure had abated the question came, " Is 
it right"? and they found themselves judges. 
They became ashamed of their nakedness, for 
their passions were aroused by it, so they sought 



40 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

to cover their bodies with leaves. But the ques- 
tion " Is it right " would not be silenced. In 
the quiet of their thoughts, it returned and de- 
manded that, now that they were capable of 
judging, they decide whether these pleasures con- 
tinue or not. Could they build stronger charac- 
ters in the pursuit of pleasures of sense or in the 
joys of the soul? They knew what an honest 
decision would be, but, being fascinated by their 
newly found pleasures, they did not want to make 
the decision and follow it. This consideration 
would come up, however, until their disquieted 
minds sought solitude, thinking to hide them- 
selves from their consciences, — God's voice. 

Adam replied frankly to the question " Where 
art thou? ": "I heard thy voice in the garden, 
and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid 
myself." Conscience took advantage of this ut- 
terance. " How do you know that you excite the 
passion of those you met, or are naked? It is 
because you are passionate yourself. Will these 
passions make a strong character? " But they, 
too thoroughly held by the fascination, evaded 
the decision and excused their acts by laying the 
blame on others. This lowered them in their own 
estimation and removed the idea of a personal 
responsibility for their acts. 

In the curses here given Mosaic writers seem to 
have embodied all the resultant consequences 
which this choice of ways or method of develop- 
ment occasioned. It is a statement of the ills 



THE PROBLEM OF LIFE 41 

from which man must be freed to again be normal 
and attain the highest development possible to 
him. 

This was not the battle of a day, but of years. 
Adam's soul had grown weaker and weaker in its 
power to review its own actions. The spiritual 
side of his nature was slowly dying or he was 
losing ability to use it. He was being separated 
from the tree of life. Eve had replied to Adam's 
taunt that it was her fault, by accusing others. 
Consciousness was almost lost in the increasing 
excitement demanded by their senses ; and the life 
was filled with busy days of preparation in an- 
ticipation of days and nights of exciting pleas- 
ures. 

Their tastes and desires, once so simple, and 
easy to gatify, had now grown and multiplied so 
that an anxiety was constaiitly present lest they 
could not be gratified. They found that their 
perverted fancy, tastes and desires demanded not 
the simple products of the soil, but these must 
be changed to suit their palate and caprice. This 
involved much time and labor, until their waking 
hours were largely spent in preparing for and 
ministering to these new demands. Upon their 
bellies (appetites and fancied desires of the 
stomach and person) was bestowed most of their 
attention. Thus the soil, changed by plant and 
animal life into nourishment, became their only 
food. They sought no food for the soul. 

Formerly the beauty and grandeur of their 






42 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

surroundings, the delights of the sunrise and 
sunset, the music of the birds, the quiet moments 
of thought, in fact all that enlarges and expands 
the soul were much more food to them than what 
ministered to the body. But all had changed. 
The stately tree was so much wood for their oven, 
the sunrise but inaugurated a day of toil for their 
physical wants, and sunset introduced the night 
of debauchery and sensual pleasures. The music 
of the birds fell on dull, deadened ears, while the 
moment of quiet thought was shunned with a feel- 
ing akin to horror, until it became literally true 
that " upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust 
shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." He that 
lives but for the consumption of earth's chem- 
icals in food and clothing exists within his animal 
nature only, as the nobler attributes of nature are 
only seen and known to those who are spiritual 
in their way of life. The animal, which tempted 
Eve, not able to become spiritual, was alone fed 
by dust and its activities limited to supplying 
these needs. Adam and Eve, as fast as they 
allowed themselves to follow this way of life, ex- 
perienced the same results in their souls. They 
found that there was constant strife between the 
physical and spiritual demands and that it was 
transmitted to their off -spring. The culmina- 
tion of every joy was marred by the demands of 
conscience or spirit, and the spiritual demands 
were unheeded because they were occupied by the 
pleasures, works and thoughts of sense. (Gen. 



THE PROBLEM OF LIFE 43 

iii. 15.) The head of the one was bruised by 
the heel of the other. 

The woman suffered greatly from the life she 
was living. Her body was made of a finer tex- 
ture, and was gentler and more sensitive than 
the man's. Her slender, graceful form was much 
more the habitation of a spirit of love in its 
peculiar duty in the propagation of the race 
than was the more stalwart form of the man. 
When the pleasures of sense, the appetites of the 
stomach and the excitement of lust began to have 
sway, the sensitive form shrank and withered be- 
fore its blight, making child-birth a period of 
great suffering. Her position of help-mate had 
placed her by the side of man as his companion 
and trusted friend. As she lost her spiritual look 
upon life, and her passions began to be more and 
more cultivated, she found herself losing her 
former position. Her desires placed her at the 
will of man and she became servile to him, and he 
ruled her through his command of her desires. 
(Gen. iii. 16.) 

The results upon Adam were not less severe. 
His greater strength and ability to overcome the 
difficulties of collecting the fruits and enduring 
the fatigues of the chase placed upon him the 
duties of providing food. At first his bright, 
active mind aided him materially in securing the 
needs of himself and the woman. The game was 
out-witted rather than out-run, and his inventive 
genius brought him many ways of securing his 



44 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

desires, which were simple and easily supplied. 
He was thus saved much labor. His joys of 
sense, however, did not demand the exercise of 
his mind. It became an effort to think. It was 
easier to run than to think. Enervated by the 
luxurious way of life, he shunned the more difficult 
things. He preferred to use his muscles rather 
than his head. Instead of subduing nature and 
having dominion over the beasts of the field 
through mental superiority, he endeavored to ac- 
complish it by the use of physical force. 

This added to his burden in two ways ; first, by 
requiring more time to accomplish his work, and 
by adding more to the wear of his body, thus de- 
manding more food. He found the cereals best 
adapted to his wants and began to cultivate them. 
His cultivation of the ground stimulated the 
growth of weeds until he was confronted with an 
almost impossible task, without the aid which mind 
can give in tools and methods. By constant 
strife and with hard and unrelenting toil he suc- 
ceeded in keeping the necessities of existence in 
the possession of his family. Slowly but surely 
he sank in the scale of intelligence, until little was 
left but the instrument of flesh and that portion 
of the brain which controls his animal activities, 
leaving little to distinguish him from the clod he 
worked and to which after the activities of life had 
ended his body would return. (Gen. iii. 19.) 

Thus it seems the Mosaic writers explained the 
process by which man reached his low intellectual, 



THE PROBLEM OF LIFE 45 

moral and physical condition causing the problem 
of their day. Early man had chosen to neglect 
the soul and indulge the person. It had proven 
death to one and sorrow to the other. 

Now that Adam and Eve had tasted of the 
pleasures of sense and knew also the joys of the 
soul they began to want to enjoy both. They 
could not see why they should not feel their 
hearts swell with emotion in glad response to the 
sunrise, their eyes kindle with delight at the 
gorgeous colors of the sunset, why the former 
love and self-sacrifice for each other might not be 
as great as formerly, the quiet possession of the 
natural world in the rise of being into- loftier 
realms of thought and action by its influence, 
why all the joys, in fact, of the spirit might not 
be theirs, and still enjoy these of sense. 

The demands of sense, however, excluded those 
of the spirit. The cravings of the stomach gave 
no time or place in the mind for glad response to 
the advent of day, their selfish desires of awakened 
lust excluded the love that they first bore for each 
other, and their conscience instead of rewarding 
them by noble musings in the presence of the 
natural world accused them for the life they were 
leading. They must of necessity cleave to the 
one and forsake the other. But the quiet and 
seclusion of the garden, which they sought when 
its beauty was a source of delight and they 
revelled in their own thoughts and kindled aspira- 
tions, had now became a source of annoyance to 



46 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

them. They did not want to think. Its quiet 
and opportunity for spiritual life drove them 
from it to avoid the voice of conscience. 

Their diversions were many. It would demand 
time and effort to regain the powers of soul which 
they had lost. They had no desire to give either, 
nor to return to their former life. The thoughts, 
the aspirations, the delights, as well as the pur- 
pose, which had filled the earlier years of their 
manhood and womanhood were forgotten. They 
had launched out upon a life in which the animal 
wants, cares and ambitions were the only con- 
sideration. They were willing to be occupied by 
them, although perfect happiness and content- 
ment were not theirs. These new and unnatural 
pleasures, cares and ambitions became a sword of 
many blades, turning every way to keep them 
from entering their former life, while every power 
or ability of soul that weakened and was lost to 
use and forgotten added another task and another 
reason for their not undertaking to regain their 
former power of soul. 



CHAPTER V 
FROM ADAM TO NOAH 

Adam and Eve were blessed with two sons ; the 
older was Cain and the younger was Abel. At 
the birth of the older, Eve, recognizing him to 
have spiritual possibilities, named him Cain, mean- 
ing " acquired," indicating that he had ability 
acquired from God which she as mother could not 
bestow. As the boys grew up, they exhibited 
different tendencies and sought different occupa- 
tions. Cain preferred to work in the field cul- 
tivating the soil, while Abel chose the solitude 
and quiet of the herder of the flocks. 

The characters of the two boys were in- 
fluenced by the life they led. Cain imbibed the 
thoughts and ideas incident to his work. This 
view of life led him to place value on the pleasures 
of appetite, distinction among his fellows for 
physical strength, and similar ambitions, which 
made the consideration of the physical man pre- 
dominant in the soul. These pleasures occupied 
his leisure time and filled his thoughts while he 
worked. 

Abel, however, was alone the greater part of his 

time with the sheep and cattle. He had a great 

deal of time for thought. He did not like the 

habits that his brother was acquiring. He rather 

47 



48 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

enjoyed the quiet, solitary life with his flock, amid 
the beauties of nature, growing in the graces and 
abilities of the soul. This naturally brought 
into prominence the soul and lessened his appre- 
ciation of the pleasures of sense. 

The boys were developing character or soul, 
the highest product of life. They were both 
sacrificing or consuming the body, organic life, 
changing it by the formation of habits and 
thought into character or soul. The sacrifice of 
Abel in building character shows that he brought 
to God an offering in accord with the processes 
of nature (the will of God) of which all other 
sacrifices are symbolical. If God expresses Him- 
self in nature and our soul, the success or failure 
of our actions must be His expression of approval 
or disapproval. This denying ourselves all that 
would stand in the way of the purpose sought, 
is the sacrifice which God demands of every man 
who has an aim in life and wishes to attain it. 
This was the sacrifice of Cain and Abel. Cain 
offered his soul to the furtherance of his physical 
life. Abel offered his body for the enlargement 
of his soul. 

The manhood or soul which their years of 
sacrifice had produced was tried. It was decided 
by an expression from God. He " had respect " 
for Abel's offering. He gave it recognition. 
God's approval is success. When we do right, 
conform to natural laws, God's expressed will, we 
succeed. It is thus He probably gave his ap- 



FROM ADAM TO NOAH 49 

proval. We do not know how this was done. It 
might be in innumerable ways, but the following 
will illustrate the idea. 

Abel had cultivated a strong and lovable char- 
acter. His companions were drawn to him and 
he had a strong influence over them by his gen- 
erous, kindly ways, but never permitted himself 
to be drawn from a course of action which he con- 
sidered right. He had learned much and been 
tried by his flock. He had learned to give him- 
self to his flock and minister to their needs. It 
was natural that he give himself to his friends and 
their needs. His character was admired and his 
company sought. Cain noticed Abel's influence 
and sought the friendship and esteem of those 
around him, such as his brother had secured. He, 
probably, gave the evenings to pleasure, the 
feasts of rare delicacies, and the tournaments of 
strength and skill. But he found that, while 
many came to his gatherings, they preferred Abel 
rather than himself. He realized that his charac- 
ter and Abel's had been put to the test, and Abel 
was preferred. He probably did not recognize 
God as the judge rendering this decree, but sim- 
ply knew that he was beaten. Cain felt that it 
was unjust and it made him angry. He went 
aside by himself to think it over. He was not 
accustomed to think. His conscience said to him, 
" Why are you angry? If your way of life were 
right you would be equally preferred. Lay aside 
the habits you have formed and develop the 



50 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

graces and abilities of the soul. Sacrifice your- 
self for your companions, and you can be as Abel 
is. You are wrong. If you do not change, you 
will have only physical desires and lose control 
of these also." This was probably more felt than 
thought, as the unthoughtful feel the truth of 
the situation but do not analyze it. He had 
looked upon Abel as weak and cowardly. It 
made him more impatient to think that he, who 
considered himself strong, should be outdone by 
Abel. His resentment grew and he said to him- 
self, " I will settle this when I see him," allow- 
ing anger to dominate reason. 

The meeting came. Abel, never equal to the 
physical mastery of his flock, sought other 
means, while Cain knew mastery only by brute 
force. The more they talked and Abel tried to 
appease him, the more angry Cain became, until 
he sprang upon Abel to beat him. He did not 
estimate his strength aright, as he but intended 
to teach him a lesson and command him by his 
superior strength. When he ceased Abel was 
dead. Cain had liked Abel as well as others. His 
treatment of Cain had always been brotherly, and 
he had not thought of killing or permanently 
injuring him when he began to punish him. 
Even the tragic ending did not fully overcome his 
anger. Cain perhaps left him with the feeling 
that it was what he deserved. When he was asked 
if he knew where Abel was, he replied, " I know 
not. Am I my brother's keeper? w 



FROM ADAM TO NOAH 51 

When alone, the awful thought came to him, 
" What have I done? " With a shudder he hid 
his face and, despite himself, lived again those 
tragic moments. Before him seemed to lie his 
brother's lifeless form, and he seemed to feel his 
blood upon his hand and see it on the ground. 
He could no longer work with undivided attention 
at the task in hand. His mind was filled with 
remorse. 

The weeds got ahead of him, his crops were 
choked and the yield cut down. He shunned his 
companions lest they suspect his secret, which he 
felt he could not hide in their presence. It 
weighed on him continually. He felt that he 
could not endure this way of living very long. 
He knew that strict justice should accord him the 
same treatment he had ministered to his brother, 
and he feared that should Abel's friends find it 
out, they would kill him. He finally said to him- 
self, " I am afraid to stay here any longer. I 
am driven from this locality. But if I do go 
they will find me." But the spirit answered him, 
putting the thought in his mind, " They won't 
do that. You are sevenfold more miserable now 
than death will make you. Your misery will 
mark you and they who see you will shrink from 
you." So, not daring to do the manly thing, 
that is, to confess and take his crime before his 
fellows, with a determination to forsake his way 
of life forever, he slipped away and went to the 



52 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

land of Nod. In doing this he forsook the coun- 
cil of his conscience. 

Cain built a city, naming it after his first-born 
son Enoch. His progeny grew and became 
skilled as nomadic herders, musicians, and iron 
and brass workers, which would indicate rather a 
warlike and commercial disposition. Among 
them murder went unpunished on the pretext that 
man suffered more without death. This was not 
true, as the conscience ere long did not accuse. 

In the meantime Adam's family grew through 
a grandson by Seth, a younger brother of Cain. 
As time passed the arrogance of man grew, and 
seeing that they were masters of the creatures 
about them and that their achievements were com- 
paratively great, they began to call themselves 
gods, on account of their supremacy. 

At this time spiritual man or the descendants 
of Adam were numerous. So also the descend- 
ants of physical man had multiplied. And the 
spiritual men began to take in marriage as many 
of the daughters of the physical men as they 
wanted. They often became as low as those who 
had no spiritual possibilities, and God became 
weary of their sensual lives, which alone produced 
large physical men. Even the alliances between 
the descendants of Adam and the daughters of 
men were known only for their physical achieve- 
ments. God saw that the whole life, its purposes, 
its thoughts, its acts, and its achievements were 
all sensual, that none desired to seek a life above 



FROM ADAM TO NOAH 53 

this. He thought best to remove all those who 
would not or could not rise to a nobler sphere of 
action. By beginning with a man who recog- 
nized that life was not all sense, God might rear 
a perfect character. 

He chose Noah and destroyed the rest. This 
destruction, its methods and extent, does not in- 
terest us in this investigation. It is rather the 
fact that all men since then are given and may 
recognize a spirit or conscience, as the destruc- 
tion ended all mere physical men. In the future 
none would be without the voice of conscience to 
guide men. God regretted that mere physical 
man had been created. 

The narrative thus far seems to speak of the 
steady decline of most, if not all, of the human 
family. We, however, find in Noah an evidence 
of moral strength which Adam does not display, 
by placing a personal responsibility upon himself 
and his fellows for murder, which Cain shrank 
from doing when found in fault. The conscience 
of Noah, probably, arose, and heeding her voice 
he declared that henceforth he who shed the blood 
of man, his blood should be shed by man. This 
seemed a step forward, but resistance to an evil 
life or way of life is not of necessity an improve- 
ment. Evil in man is only removed by disuse, 
which makes the thoughts as well as the acts im- 
possible. The act of murder is only impossible 
where a feeling is held for others which makes 
murder never thought. This we do not find in 



54 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

Noah. But he had taken a stand against murder. 

The basis of all his considerations was probably 
the body, its needs, its comforts, its pleasures and 
its protection. These formed no doubt the up- 
permost thoughts in his mind and were the pur- 
pose of all his activities. His physique was 
largely master of his soul. So that when God 
spoke to him through his conscience, instead of 
responding by a mastery of the soul which would 
render murder impossible, he gave a remedy in 
accord with his point of view. The preservation 
of the body was the first law of his physical na- 
ture. The man who would kill his brother was 
dangerous to his existence, therefore he must die. 
This probably found expression in his thought 
thus: " He might kill us. We will kill him." 

History has displayed man's development re- 
peatedly. Man has given several answers to the 
voice of conscience asking the question, " Is it 
right to steal? " The answer has been univer- 
sally " No." The penalty has expressed the de- 
velopment of the race. At first the penalty was 
death, then imprisonment, then fine, and now theft 
is called a disease of the mind. The time will 
come when Christ's method will be employed, that 
of offering more if it is needed, thus removing 
the reason for theft. Each one of these answers 
marks a growth of the supremacy of the soul and 
spirit. The first shows the physique largely the 
master of the soul, the other displays the gradual 
growth of the supremacy of the soul over the 



FROM ADAM TO NOAH 55 

body and the spirit over the soul, until in the 
answer of Christ we see the spirit in control. It 
is this transition which has been taking place since 
the time of Noah, that forms the history of the 
growth of man, the culmination of which finds 
its type in Christ. 

One thing noticeably lacking in the narrative 
thus far is the use of the higher faculties of man. 
Noah evidently had little possesion of his soul, 
and recognized but slightly his conscience. Noah 
did not grasp the idea of God as a spirit (and as 
a spirit, the original and persistently continuous 
cause of all). He probably looked upon God as 
another man, who was strong enough to control 
things and therefore to be feared. He could have 
but a vague idea of His connection with the natu- 
ral world, still he may have thought that He con- 
trolled it as one would by the exercise of force 
or as one runs a machine to-day. 

The steps to polytheism were easy. If God 
be another being such as man, they knew that 
no one man excelled in all points of desirable 
power. One is physically strong, another has 
quick wits, another is cunning, another is gen- 
erous, another is loving, and so on. This would 
lead them to think that this was true of other gods 
who rule the natural world and that the different 
elements in human nature and the universe were 
governed by different gods. These gods must 
be appeased, when evidence of their displeasure is 
detected, by withholding a portion of that which 



56 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

satisfied man's desires as gifts to them. This is 
natural. They were more powerful, they could 
not resist their power, as it was of a mysterious 
character; they therefore tried to appease it by 
gifts which they considered valuable. 

It is but a small step from the mysterious gods 
to the idol of stone or metal. The distorted 
imagination would find relief to have the horrors 
of an unknown and dreaded something dispelled 
by an accepted representation of what a god was 
supposed to be. The result of this conception of 
God was to lessen the abstract thought, or the 
exercise of the faculties of the soul. There is 
evidence of but very little, if any, ability to think 
in the abstract; natural objects probably intro- 
duced ideas and memory associated them with the 
past occurrences which had come under their ob- 
servation, but they gave no evidence of specula- 
tion or wondering in any way as to who they 
were, how they became so, or of raising a ques- 
tion that would bring to their minds the ideas of 
a natural law, or a series of causes and effects. 

It was therefore to be expected that man would 
look more upon nature and natural products from 
the standpoint of what or how much they could 
minister to his physical desires. The value of 
things generally would be gauged by the stand- 
ard " Is it good to eat, drink, wear? " and so on. 

This was not a loss of power in the soul or a 
decline of man from any acquired position, for 
Adam and his descendants had not at any time 



FROM ADAM TO NOAH 57 

accumulated by cultivation mental or spiritual 
force. It was the direction his development took. 
He cultivated the soul; but it was its grosser 
side. He lost the command or control of pow- 
ers and abilities by neglect. He cultivated a 
sensual look on life. 

Mosaic writers picture Adam (or primitive 
man) as beginning with a virgin mind in a forma- 
tive condition. It was untried. He did not 
know his powers or his weaknesses. He must 
learn of himself as he must learn of the world 
about him. Any strength of soul acquired by him 
would be a gain. His first lesson was that he 
could lose control of himself and the results of 
this loss imposed upon him. The conquest of the 
soul, the awakening of its latent powers until all 
are serviceable and the creation of their strength 
and learning to use them most effectively, is the 
purpose of the Bible, — the salvation of the soul. 



CHAPTER VI 
MOSAIC IDEALS 

Our study of man has shown that at this period 
his perceptive faculties viewed life from the stand- 
point of his physical desires, needs and comforts. 
This absorbed his attention, and gave his every 
thought and action a selfish turn. In order that 
he might become a better man, he must be able 
to comprehend more, his perceptive faculty must 
grow. With the growth of his conceptions he 
would be able to change his attitude, or point of 
view, and enlarge his activities. 

Man's ability to perceive more jgives him op- 
portunity to do more. This fact is demonstrated 
in every advance of any branch of human devel- 
opment. Luther's conception of a better, nobler 
church produced Protestantism. Watt's concep- 
tion of the expansive power of steam made possi- 
ble rapid transit. As the rapid strides of later 
development, so the feeble steps of the inception. 
Man's perceptive faculty must be awakened to 
open to him opportunities for greater achieve- 
ments. Man in his infancy must be approached 
by the one way open through which the ideas can 
come that will develop his soul and lead to the 
spiritual supremacy which completes the man. 
This way was his physical wants and necessities. 
Adam determined this. 

58 



MOSAIC IDEALS 59 

Man with all his possibilities was little above 
the animal, except in the degree of ability. He 
was not master of himself, but the child of his 
environment. This environment was the energy 
of nature or the spirit of God. His highest de- 
velopment would come by perfect conformity to 
these decrees or laws. This would produce the 
noblest manhood and the greatest happiness, 
which is the goal of all human effort. 

Noah's decision against murder was something 
new, something that would develop. Men may 
have been leaders but not rulers of men before. 
Man was not to be the unrestrained, irresponsible 
being that he had been. He was to become a unit 
of the whole, which comprised all who must ac- 
count for the taking of life. This formed the 
patriarchal form of government and made man 
accountable for his conduct in some way. The 
growth of the idea was slow. It is probable that 
Noah exercised authority very infrequently. As 
time went on the necessity for some one to decide 
disputes and establish or make customs began to 
be recognized. The need perhaps became urgent 
for self-protection to have some one to act with 
authority, so the idea was enlarged by vesting 
authority in the oldest man to make laws, to en- 
force them and to settle disputes. It seems to be 
a law of human progress that each advance made 
brings man in contact with a new law. While de- 
veloping the old ideas and adjusting himself to 
the old law already known, he does not notice the 



60 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

other law which he is violating. As soon as he 
accomplishes his task, and wholly, or in part, con- 
forms to that law, his full pleasure and enjoyment 
is marred by the new law heretofore unnoticed. 
(Gen. iii. 15.) A new task is therefore ever at 
hand awaiting his attention. This has ever been 
true, especially in the governments and religions 
of man. It is by no means an insignificant part 
it has played in the rise of man. 

The first difficulty was evidently found in en- 
forcing the edicts of authority. Soon the strong- 
est man became the monarch or chieftain, giving 
recognition to the principle so long in force that 
might made right. At this time in the narrative 
the peoples of the earth, having one language, 
became actuated with a common purpose. They 
gathered together to build a tower of great 
height, or some great achievement. After labor- 
ing quite a while, and having builded a structure 
of great height, some began to be dissatisfied and 
dissensions arose and scattered them. The feel- 
ing was strong enough to cause a separation so 
complete that no intercourse was possible. This 
resulted in various dialects springing up, which 
grew rapidly, until to-day there are but few words 
which are common to the Arian peoples and none 
which are common to all. 

This was also the point of divergence in the 
development of the whole race prior to the time of 
Christ. Each branch of the human family be- 
took itself to some quarter of the earth, and there, 



MOSAIC IDEALS 61 

alone and isolated, surrounded this idea of au- 
thority with a development which was influenced 
by their peculiar environment and circumstance. 
The character of each development depended on 
the idea of the source of authority. The general 
idea was that authority came from a source able 
to enforce its own decrees. The idea at this time 
meant physical strength. The people, as they 
scattered, held this idea in common, and all their 
development was moulded by it, although later 
changed to include intellectual power, with but 
one single exception. It is this exception that 
we are about to study briefly. 

Among the people who settled in Chaldea, the 
scattering seemed to have continued for several 
generations. One of the families who betook 
themselves into new quarters was that of Abram, 
who became dissatisfied with his own family and 
withdrew with a few others into the land of Ca- 
naan. Here, infatuated with a new idea of au- 
thority, he planted the seeds which, germinating, 
brought forth that development that made his 
progeny " a peculiar people." This idea was 
that the source of all authority was God, who is 
Almighty. Their development was the growth of 
the soul about this idea of authority. 

Their conception of God was not that which 
we have found in our study of creation. It was 
rather that which was attributed to Noah's time, 
— except there was but one God and He was all 
powerful, but still a being such as man, capable 



62 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

of enforcing his commands in a way that per- 
mitted none to escape punishment if God desired 
to inflict it. The phenomenon of man administer- 
ing authority was, no doubt, the basis of their 
conception. All commandments which they rec- 
ognized as compulsory were spoken by men as the 
oracle or servant of God, quite as the decrees of 
men in authority were conveyed to different por- 
tions of their domains. All natural law easily 
became to them the commandments of God. 

We have gone far enough now to note the 
cause of this development which surrounded the 
idea of authority. The development of man is 
the gaining possession of, or ability to use, the 
faculties of the soul. The soul is not progressive 
when sensual enjoyment or satisfaction is the only 
purpose; therefore whatever progress comes to 
such a man comes through compulsory methods. 
The idea of authority was a source of develop- 
ment because the decrees of authority were backed 
by means of enforcing it. It was necessary that 
the laws for the growth of the soul and the pres- 
ervation of the body be put in the form of com- 
mandments of God to these early people and the 
consequences of the violation of these laws be put 
in the light of punishment or chastisement, and 
a growth accomplished not by the people but in 
spite of them. The idea of the authority of God 
was used as a means of compelling them to rec- 
ognize and obey natural law, owing to the fact 



MOSAIC IDEALS 63 

that this was the only avenue open to the percep- 
tive faculty of the soul. 

The commandment of circumcision was a meas- 
ure for the preservation of the physical health. 
This was received not as a means of alleviating 
the consequences of a natural law, but as a com- 
mand of God. The disease which was a conse- 
quence of its violation was looked upon in the 
light of a chastisement. In the succeeding years 
the progress was very slow. The chronology of 
this period of Jewish history was that of the fam- 
ily of Abram as it multiplied and grew in num- 
bers. The development was the growth of the 
minds of the Israelites enabling them, as a body, 
to grasp the conception of authority as held by 
their father Abram. The idea of authority main- 
tained by might was prevalent in all minds, but 
the change originating in the mind of one man 
(Abram) of authority by "fear of God" came 
slowly to the minds of his descendants and fol- 
lowers. The grasp of it by a majority of Israel 
was slowly accomplished during their history prior 
to Moses. Abram, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph held 
perhaps this conception of authority, but they 
stood out as marked figures towering high above 
their fellows. They were the advanced thinkers 
of their time. The short residence in Goshen, 
followed by their long service as slaves to 
Pharaoh, accomplished the rise of a major- 
ity of these people to a firm grasp of this 



64 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

idea, so that the " Thus saith the Lord God " 
of Moses struck a responsive chord in the mind 
and thought of every Israelite to a greater or less 
degree. Until this was true it would have been 
impossible to have governed them other than by 
the use of might (physical strength), such as 
was done in their enforced service in Egypt. 

The Egyptians had developed the common idea 
of authority by physical might. They did not 
need long years of preparation before they began 
their development, but adding to the conception 
of power by might the idea of mental power had 
grown rapidly to the limit of its possibilities for 
them. Abram's idea of the authority of God 
required the growth of soul. It enlarged the 
life of the masses. The new idea, to control all, 
must be the possession of all. This took time. 

Now, however, with the almost universal ac- 
ceptance of God as the source of power, it was 
possible to begin an independent tribal or national 
existence having the basis for a " peculiar peo- 
ple " laid in a peculiar conception of the source of 
power and authority. This widened their sphere 
of activity by widening their perceptions and 
bringing to their minds the new law or possibility. 
Moses now rose as a leader of a new and larger 
idea. This new idea was that God was Jehovah, 
the Lord or Ruler. Moses gives the idea as con- 
veyed to him, " I am the Lord and I appeared 
unto Abram, unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the 
name of God Almighty, but by my name Jeho^ 



MOSAIC IDEALS 65 

vah was I not known to them." (Ex. vi. 2, 3.) 
God developed these people by controlling their 
environment, and by the use of natural law was 
opening the closed door to their souls, the blunted, 
dull perceptive faculty. God had been occupied 
in creating a universe. He had " rested " from 
activities of this character and seemed to be di- 
recting his control of original force toward open- 
ing the perceptive faculty of man and creating in 
him the character which was his ultimate purpose. 
The soul of man was a chaos " without form and 
void," and darkness was upon the face of it. But 
now his control of original forces was to produce 
light in the darkness of minds, to develop power 
of soul in the midst of weakness, to divide the 
true and the false, to bring forth the blossom of 
beautiful thoughts and aspirations, noble aims and 
desires. When man secured dominion over these 
he would be a living soul. 

The Israelites were, however, not prepared for 
implicit confidence in the power of God except 
by a demonstration of that power ; God's author- 
ity must be established by a direct evidence of 
power. This he gave by control of the forces of 
nature in the way which would appeal to them 
most forcibly. Compulsory power based on abil- 
ity to punish physically was the only way to en- 
force the command of any authority upon these 
people at this time. An example of such power 
was therefore the strongest appeal possible to 
them, and God gave such an example in his treat- 



66 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

ment of Pharaoh. His control of Pharaoh was 
such as to make him a perfect automaton, using 
him as one would a toy man with wires (a crude 
example) by a perfect control of his environment 
and disposition. By his commands to him and 
his punishment of him for disobedience he im- 
pressed upon the children of Israel his power to 
rule. Moses, God's oracle or spokesman, was a 
man whose perceptive faculty was highly devel- 
oped by the education he had received from the 
Egyptians. 

While Moses rose above his followers as a 
mountain above the plain, he was himself in a 
transitional stage relative to the idea of God. He 
could think profoundly on the new idea given 
him, but he could also understand and appreciate 
the position of his less fortunate kinsmen as they 
grappled with it. Such a man must ever be the 
leader if men are to rise to an understanding and 
appreciation of the truth he brings. Moses, then, 
as leader, could now command the Israelites in the 
name of Jehovah, and lead them from bondage. 

Before they were allowed to go God gave his 
first command and enforced his first penalty in 
the institution of the Passover, by commanding 
them to place blood on the door post when he 
destroyed the first-born of the land of Egypt and 
by destroying all who did not comply with this 
command. He also gave ordinance making this 
day a national memorial to recall to them his sov- 
ereign power and caused the celebration of the 



MOSAIC IDEALS 67 

event to cover an entire week. This has been ob- 
served throughout the history of the Jews. 

The children of Israel, laden with the treasure 
of the Egyptians, now left the land of Egypt, 
and being again reminded of the almightiness of 
their God in crossing the Red Sea, began an inde- 
pendent tribal history. God treated them quite 
like children and kept constantly before them a 
reminder of himself in a pillar of fire by night 
and a cloud by day. The Israelites were but a 
mob as they came out of Egypt. They were not 
organized. They had made no preparation for 
their new venture. They were not prepared to 
conquer the better organized inhabitants of the 
land to which they journeyed. So God led them 
into an uninhabited or sparsely inhabited country 
where they might perfect an organization. Time 
was needed to accomplish this, to give them for- 
mal religion and accustom them to their freedom. 
Mistakes were to be expected. Misgivings were 
inevitable. And it proved that a new generation 
must arise which would more fully grasp and ap- 
preciate the new thought or idea before a perma- 
nent abode could safely be established. 

The government and religion that were estab- 
lished were formed for the expanding of the mind 
or perceptive faculty, and through this the re- 
mainder of the soul by means of physical regula- 
tions. Every effort of God at this time seemed a 
use of his volitionary control of the forces of 
nature that by its physical effect he might open 



68 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

the conceptions of man to a larger, firmer grasp 
of the truth he was introducing to him. Thus 
the supplying of quails and manna would be con- 
stant reminders of the benefits which God con- 
ferred, as would the sweetening of the waters of 
Marah, the smiting of the rock at Horeb, and the 
victory over Amalek. The smoking mountain, 
the fire and sound of the trumpet, established with 
them the authority of the " voice " that gave the 
commandment. Moses first gave what we of to- 
day would term a constitution, or a code of gen- 
eral laws, all of which are cardinal laws of growth 
of our being. 

The first declared God's authority ; the second, 
heredity; the third, respect for authority; the 
fourth ; the need of physical rest ; the fifth, respect 
for parent; the sixth, against murder; the sev- 
enth, against adultery ; the eighth, against theft ; 
the ninth, truthfulness; and the tenth, against 
coveting or contentment. We recognize all of 
these as the natural laws of our soul in its devel- 
opment, but to the Israelites they were given as 
the commandments of God. These were the laws 
which God desired to enforce. Those given un- 
der them were of necessity in order to meet the 
detail of circumstance and custom. The laws 
given under the ten commandments constituted, 
first, a government or regulation of the indus- 
trial and social intercourse of the people ; and sec- 
ond, a religion, or the intercourse which man was 
to maintain with God, — both based on a life in 



MOSAIC IDEALS 69 

which the interest of the physique was predomi- 
nant. 

In the industrial government barter was recog- 
nized as the means of distribution of goods, which 
included chattel rights in human beings as slaves. 
In the government of society, death of both 
man and beast was a common penalty ; man could 
be sold for theft into slavery ; and in all respects 
the code was suited to the low development of the 
people. The religion was an appeal to the senses 
of man. An ark was constructed for the tables 
of the law, and a mercy-seat was placed above it 
where they could speak with God. A table was 
spread before this with shew bread upon it and a 
candlestick of special design was made to give 
light. A large tabernacle or tent was made in 
which these were placed, the ark and the mercy- 
seat in the most holy place and the table with a 
candle-stick in the holy place, with the altar for 
incense and a veil between. Outside was the altar 
of burnt offering in a court before these holy 
places, — in fact, as near as possible, expressing 
the trinity of man, spirit, soul and body. 

The intercourse between the children of Israel 
and God here took place, consisting of offerings 
of flesh, fruit, and so on, and various rites and 
ceremonies. Every violation of the laws which 
God had given them was to be atoned for in the 
sacrifice by fire of some portion of the flesh of 
cattle or the first fruits of the land, indicating 
that violations of the laws of their being required 



70 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

a loss of a portion of this physical life and an 
effort to regain their former position. The de- 
basement of the soul by any means requires a sac- 
rifice of a portion of our life and a determined 
effort to remove the defect. Convince yourself 
of a falsehood, and time and effort are required 
to establish truth. Learn to lie, steal, hate, and 
covet, and time and hard effort are required to 
speak truth, respect the possessions of others, love 
and be content. God therefore required of these 
Israelites the loss of something which had cost 
them time and effort to procure, to relieve them 
from consequences of their actions. Physical ef- 
fort means the destroying of the tissues of the 
body by friction or wear. To replace this other 
organisms must be consumed. Moses, in recog- 
nition of this, instituted a sacrifice which con- 
sisted in destroying organic matter by a chemical 
process of fire. 

This at first may only have been a mere phys- 
ical loss to them, a portion of their food which 
must be replaced. But as they grew in soul, and 
began to think of this sacrifice, they were led to 
consider the loss and avoid it on account of its 
extra burden. As they came further into the pos- 
session of their souls they entered more and more 
into the spirit of the man who is striving to re- 
move an evil habit. The person who committed 
the wrong, and acted conscientiously in bringing 
his sacrifice, must truly repent of the wrong and 



MOSAIC IDEALS 71 

strive to rid himself of the thought or wish to do 
the wrong, in order to prevent a repetition. Thus 
he would, without knowing the real process that 
was taking place, develop and enlarge his soul. 

These sacrifices were the intercourse which this 
religion placed directly between God and man, ex- 
cept in the case of Moses and the prophets. This 
intercourse clearly aimed at that communion 
which man is capable of maintaining in the seclu- 
sion of his own soul with his spirit or his God, 
the Holy of Holies where but one can enter. 

The children of Israel were to be accorded in a 
degree the development possible to a man who 
rises to a conscious direction of his faculties and 
strives to develop the defective ones. Not only 
were the faculties to be developed, but the reli- 
gion must accomplish the preservation of the 
body. Laws were therefore given in regard to 
marriage, the use of meats, and detecting and 
handling cases of leprosy. These laws were of a 
preventative nature and tended to build up a 
strong physique. 

Some other measures were aimed to relieve the 
ill effect of their competitive system of distribu- 
tion, such as leaving some of the grain to the 
gleaners, and the return of all possessions to the 
original owners, and slaves to their families, every 
fifty years or upon the year of Jubilee. By these 
means the selfishness caused by competitive strife 
for the necessities of physical life was modified 



72 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

and not allowed to bring forth its full fruitage, 
while strong self-interest made any other system 
of distribution impossible. 

This was further decreased by large demands 
upon their time for observance of the rites and 
ceremonies of the tabernacle, and the command 
which caused one year in every seven to be a sab- 
bath for the land, in which no crops could be 
grown. The year of Jubilee was also a year in 
which the crops w T ere not harvested, thus making 
eight years in every fifty when the work of the 
land was practically abandoned and the inter- 
course by means of the sacrifices, rites and cere- 
monies was made foremost in every mind. This 
temporary abandonment also strengthened the 
land and increased its productiveness. 

These vacations from toil lessened the impor- 
tance of external life in the minds of the Israelites 
and increased that of their religion. The faith- 
ful observance of their sabbaths and laws was to 
be rewarded by " rain in due season and the land 
shall yield her increase and the trees of the field 
shall yield their fruit." (Lev. xxvi. 4.) Peace, 
victory over their enemies, and increase of num- 
bers were also to be theirs. Their refusal to obey 
these laws was to bring the natural consequence, 
" terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that 
shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart, 
and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your ene- 
mies shall eat it." Defeat, disaster, slavery, and 
lessened returns from the land were also among 



MOSAIC IDEALS 73 

the consequences of disobedience put in the light 
of chastisement. After their disobedience, if 
they would repent, God promised to restore them 
the land. 

Moses, as the head of both their government 
and their religion, was assisted by the assembly of 
seventy elders, whose duty was to assist in all 
matters pertaining to the people, who were now 
well organized. Thus after forty years of trav- 
elling in the Arabian desert they became a well 
organized body. The commandments of God 
were recognized and obeyed through fear of His 
power, which they now knew well. The numer- 
ous ordinances and judgments forming their gov- 
ernment, as well as the sacrifices, rites and cere- 
monies of their religion, were well established. 
They were ready for a permanent home wherein 
they could fill out the full measure of their possi- 
bilities under this form of institution. 

These years of special preparation had also 
changed their conception of God. They had 
seen many manifestations of his power and au- 
thority, but nothing that would convey an idea of 
his form. God therefore had become known to 
them as a " consuming fire." He was, in other 
words, known to them as a power which, like a 
vast conflagration, could not be quenched, but 
whose bidding must be complied with. Moses was 
to leave them now on the banks of Jordan, but 
before doing so he impressed upon them the new 
idea of God, and also his commands and ordi- 



74 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

nances. He thus spoke of God: (Deut. iv.) 
" And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst 
of the fire; ye heard the voice of the words but 
saw no similitude ; ye only heard a voice. • . . 
Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves ; for 
ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that 
the Lord spake unto- you in Horeb out of the 
midst of the fire, lest ye corrupt yourselves and 
make you a graven image, the similitude of any 
figure, the likeness of male, or female, the likeness 
of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of 
any winged fowl that flieth in the air, the like- 
ness of anything that creepeth on the ground. 
Take heed unto yourselves lest ye for- 
get the covenant of the Lord your God which he 
made with you and make you a graven image, or 
the likeness of anything which the Lord your God 
has forbidden you. For the Lord thy God is a 
consuming fire, even a jealous God. 55 The idea 
of God from this on was no longer that of an- 
other man, but the idea was to be based on His 
manifestation in Mt. Sinai. 

He was to them a personality who knew and 
would punish wrong, but who would also assist if 
" thou seek him with all thy heart and with all 
thy soul." Also in tribulation, if they would 
obey his commandments, he would not forsake nor 
destroy nor forget his covenants. " Know there- 
fore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that 
the Lord he is God in heaven above and upon the 
earth beneath ; there is none else." He was ruler 



MOSAIC IDEALS 75 

not only of man but of nature. Moses also re- 
iterated the laws and exhorted them to obedi- 
ence. He presented a blessing (or happiness) to 
them as a reward for obedience and a curse (or 
misery) for disobedience. After giving them a 
song to remind them of " the rock of their salva- 
tion," God, he appointed his successor, Joshua. 
Moses then went to the top of Pisgah to view the 
land of Canaan, and there died. 

We have studied the mind of Moses rather than 
the ideas of the Jews. It was the conception of 
the leaders and thinkers among them that con- 
tributed to the development of this period which 
we have sought. The Jews, as a people, had yet 
to assimilate these ideas to get the full growth 
which they made possible. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE JEW 

We have no reason to believe that the concep- 
tion of God and his laws held by Moses was 
grasped by many of his followers. On the con- 
trary, their subsequent history shows that they 
did not grasp it. The former slaves of Pharaoh 
must still move slowly toward the ideals set before 
them by their great leader. The letter of the law 
must be enforced for many generations before a 
majority of the people would rise to a fulfilment 
of the spirit of the law. This rise of the Jew 
could now take place. 

Joshua, the successor of Moses, fills the period 
in which their permanent home was acquired and 
allotted to the various tribes. In the taking of 
the land of Canaan, God's volitionary control of 
the forces of nature was again displayed in the 
crossing of the river Jordan, the fall of Jerico, as 
well as the comparatively easy conquest of the 
people of that land. This was a time of the car- 
nage and excitement which are always attendant 
upon war and conquest, and, as is usually true, 
little progress was made toward the development 
of the individual man. 

It is not our intention to follow closely the 
numerous events which enter into the history of 

76 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE JEW 77 

this period; we will take but enough of them to 
note its progress and some of the elements which 
entered into it. The unfolding of a nation is 
like that of an individual, being the gradual 
awakening and growth of a majority of the indi- 
viduals of which the nation is composed. As the 
individual leaves the strict observance of the let- 
ter of the law and enters into the spirit of it, when 
the reward of its observance becomes prized and 
a source of pleasure, so a majority of the people 
will cause a law to be filled in spirit only when 
the results of their observance increase their 
pleasure and add to their comfort or contentment. 

The Jewish people, at this time merging from 
the period of conquest, entered the period when 
the letter of the law was alone respected. The 
beautiful pastoral story of Ruth, the Moabite, 
throws light upon the noblest phase of Jewish life 
at this time. It is a jewel so rare and beautiful 
that its fame stands as a beacon light upon the 
moral heights awakening the inert nobility of all 
subsequent time to emulation. This and the story 
of Job were pictures of the highest spiritual ideals 
of that time. 

The law was not administered by an executive 
other than Jehovah. The judges, who were the 
representatives of Jehovah, were applied to only 
in case of differences which could not be settled 
by agreement of the parties. " Every man 
did that which was right in his own eyes," or, in 
other words, was his own interpreter of the civil 



78 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

law. They, however, came to the time when they 
wished for an executor of law, — one who should 
be a head to their government and in whose pomp, 
splendor and achievements they should have a 
pride. While in the midst of their remarkable 
journey from Egypt, when the presence of the 
Almighty was constantly recalled to them by the 
pillar of fire and of cloud, they were satisfied with 
His leadership and guidance. But now that their 
permanent home had been reached and the visible 
and unusual manifestations of the presence of 
Jehovah had been removed, and natural law in the 
form of commandments and their penalties alone 
remained, they began to desire the form of gov- 
ernment which was common with the people 
around them and asked for a king. The pomp, 
splendor, power and military achievements which 
surrounded the political potentate had attracted 
them quite as a new and beautiful toy would a 
child or a " brass collar " some men of to-day. 
We cannot consider them as desiring to increase 
their liberties or derive benefit from the change, 
as none could be conferred. 

This was not pleasing to God, as a king or any 
political potentate could never in truth minister 
or execute the laws which were given them. Some 
of the penalties a king could execute, but the peo- 
ple would not discriminate between these penal- 
ties and those of which the Almighty, in his voli- 
tionary control of force, is the real executor. 
This would increase the importance of the king 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE JEW 79 

and be apt to lessen that of Jehovah in the minds 
of the people. In time the orders of the king 
became more important than the commandments 
from Sinai and led to many disastrous results. 

They, however, established a king, who was 
chosen by the prophet Samuel, and began their 
history as a kingdom. The period occupied by 
the reign of the first three kings comprises the 
time of intellectual recognition of the law. The 
failure of Saul to impress himself upon the peo- 
ple was followed by the reign of David, who be- 
fore he ascended the throne had won the admira- 
tion of his people. It was the songs of David 
that awoke the latent mind of the Jews. His. 
poetry started the new thoughts in the minds of 
many of them. Poetry, that strange mingling 
of the sensuous and the divine, has been the cra- 
dle of mental and spiritual awakening or birth 
to many, many souls. It appeals to the man who 
is schooled in the world of sense, yet raises these 
conceptions by a strange metamorphosis into the 
realm of the spiritual. Thus David sang of the 
" shepherd " leading his flocks into " green pas- 
tures " and " beside still waters," and associated 
this familiar phenomena with the " Lord." The 
minds of many were awakened to higher thoughts 
that at first were alone attracted by the music of 
the words and the picture they conveyed. But as 
time went on the often repeated words took upon 
themselves new meanings as the soul met new ex- 
periences until that soul grasped the thought more 



80 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

fully and entered in part into the spirit and 
thought of David. 

Thus by the use of metaphor and simile the 
truths relative to God as given by Moses were 
slowly conveyed to many minds who prized the 
word paintings of the " Sweet Singer of Israel." 
Not only were the thoughts of Moses relative to 
God given, but they were enlarged and so adorned 
as to be more easily perceived. The idea of God 
as Ruler of the Universe was stated by David in 
many ways. He speaks of God as " The Lord 
thundered in the heavens," " He shot out light- 
nings," " The heavens declare the glory of God 
and the firmament showeth his handiwork." He 
speaks repeatedly of this in many of his songs and 
of the dependence of man upon him. He also 
added to the Jewish conception of God the idea 
of omnipresence in the 139th Psalm. He thus 
speaks of God's omnipresence : 

" Whither shall I go from thy spirit ? 

Or whither shall I fly from thy presence? 

If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there ; 

If I make my bed in Hell, behold thou art there. 

If I take the wings of morning 

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ; 

Even there shall thy hand lead me, 

And thy right hand shall hold me." 

How much more fully would the average Jewish 
mind grasp these truths than if said in a more 
prosaic way! The thought is made vivid by 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE JEW 81 

imagination and perfectly plain by the illustra- 
tion, while its rhythm acts as a key to open the 
mind and secure the words for the halls of 
memory. 

With the mind made familiar with truths in 
draperies of beauty, the Jew could not have been 
more highly favored than with Solomon as the 
successor of David. His epigrammatic utter- 
ances relative to the Mosaic law and its fulfilment, 
to life as they lived it, and to growth and its re- 
quirements were household words of warning and 
admonition and encouragement then, and are still 
familiar to the men of to-day. The proverbs are 
incident to the time of application rather than the 
mere conception of truth. The terse sayings are 
usually the expression of experience and are sign- 
boards pointing the way or giving warning of 
danger. They are intellectual appeals, however, 
and are of value to the man who is trying to im- 
prove his mode of life that he may receive " wis- 
dom and instruction." His sermon in which he 
appreciates the value of physical understanding 
contains the admonition to be energetic in every 
undertaking, while he tells of the beauty and de- 
sirability of high and noble character and predicts 
its final triumph. 

While thus the minds of the people are open- 
ing to a larger and firmer grasp of the thoughts 
of their leaders, they were still living but within 
the necessity of the law. While the mind often 
knew the right, the demands of appetites, desires 



82 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

and degrading pleasures were often followed in- 
stead. The time had now arrived to awaken the 
conscience or spirit of the people that they might 
observe the law in spirit ; not but that many had 
followed their consciences, but now there must be 
a general awakening. 

From this time on the writers of the Bible ap- 
peal from the desires of the physical being to the 
conscience. The burden of their cry seems to be 
voiced in the words of Isaiah, " Cease ye from 
man whose breath is in his nostrils," or subdue the 
physical being. " Cease to do evil, learn to do 
well." The appeal is to their conscience, that 
it arise and assume control over the soul and be 
supreme, while Isaiah assures them that God prom- 
ises to " purely purge away thy dross and take 
away all thy sin," but " the destruction of the 
transgressor and sinners shall be together." God 
promises to build up their physical being and re- 
move all that is ill and useless if they will but 
obey the laws he has given in Moses for the devel- 
opment of their souls and the cleansing of their 
bodies. 

But the leaders of this period must display an 
evidence of their fitness. Heretofore God had 
endowed his leaders, with some exceptions, with 
power over physical forces, — Moses with Pha- 
raoh, at the Red Sea, or on Sinai, or Joshua at 
Jordan or at Jerico, — but now they are to be 
distinguished by the power of soul. These men 
were to be given keen understandings and fine per- 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE JEW 83 

ceptive qualities which would enable them to re- 
ceive from God, either from the operation of his 
laws or by an inspiration, an idea of the results 
in the future, events yet to come, and a condition 
that was to exist ages afterwards, and the way 
it would be brought about. 

Isaiah tells them of their awful condition and 
that of the people about them, and that if they 
pursue their present course of indifference and 
half-hearted fulfilment of the laws of God it will 
mean their ruin and destruction. He shows them 
that (Isa. xxviii. 23) by obeying God in their 
sowing and in their harvest he is " wonderful in 
counsel and excellent in working " and urges that 
they use his counsel in developing their souls. 
Early in his teachings he declares to them (Isa. 
viii. 13) that the developed soul is the " sub- 
stance " of life, but later he told them that (Isa. 
xxviii. 20) the law as given was not capable 
of developing the whole soul of man. He pic- 
tures God to them as the cause of all created (Isa. 
xl. 22-31) and the source of their own soul and 
physical power. All who disobeyed his laws of 
physical and mental health " even the youths shall 
faint," but " they that wait upon the Lord shall 
renew their strength " like the eagle. 

He constantly draws a bright picture of God's 
future for them, when, amid right economic con- 
ditions, the people would " seek the Lord " and 
" judgment and justice " would be established. 
A man upon whom " the spirit of the Lord shall 



84 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

rest, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the 
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowl- 
edge and the fear of the Lord " would be their 
leader, and then the full development of the soul 
would be understood and be possible. 

He was the theorist, idealist or visionary of 
his day who led the people to grander living by 
the powers God had granted him. Jeremiah used 
the same means of appeal, placing however less 
stress on the bright dream of the future and 
bringing up much more the failings of the people 
and urging them to a different life. They were 
the exhorters and agitators of the ideas given 
the people before. Under them the people grew 
in ability to direct their souls or to live spiritual 
lives. The development was slow, covering some 
eight hundred years. The history of this time, 
including their captivities, demonstrated the truth 
of the immediate prophesies of their leaders and 
established faith in their words. Their contact 
during these captivities with the magi who wor- 
shipped but one god had, without doubt, much to 
do with their subsequent adherence to this 
thought. 

During this time the Israelites were led to a 
higher level of life, the rural districts especially 
following closely and conscientiously the word 
and entering deeply into the spirit of the law. 
This accomplished, the highest possibility of the 
Mosaic code was attained. 

The necessity for higher laws and wider possi- 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE JEW 85 

bilities is easily seen in the Rabbinical teachings 
just prior to the time of Christ, from which he 
used many parables. The people were alive to 
the processes of natural law or the methods em- 
ployed by God in accomplishing his ends. The 
power to govern the soul or self had already been 
recognized and taught in the parable of the 
lost piece of money, and in other ways. In- 
deed, they were in many ways evincing the 
fact that the measure of the " old bed " did not 
fit the man, that the " fullness of time " had come. 
They were now ready to look from ritualistic 
forms for their development to the natural proc- 
esses by which this was accomplished, and intelli- 
gently use them for the development and growth 
of the soul. They were ready to move forward, 
but not without doing great violence to their 
prejudices and ancient ideas. 



CHAPTER VIII 
OTHER PEOPLES 

While the Jews were developing into a peculiar 
people under their idea of the source of authority, 
the other peoples and nations of the world were 
likewise making strides toward the highest achieve- 
ments possible under their conception of au- 
thority. 

Might or physical force was recognized by all 
nations in common, with the exception of the Jew, 
as the source of power and authority. This 
naturally became the basis of their governments 
and industrialism. Governments were unorgan- 
ized civicly at first. The army was the only ef- 
fectual organization and this but maintained the 
tyrannical authority of the king throughout his 
domains. The laws at that time were largely the 
whims of the king and the established customs 
which gave no protection or right to man that his 
superior was bound to respect. The economic 
condition of the people was quite like that of the 
Jews. Barter was the basis of distribution, which 
was almost entirely local. The labor of men was 
considered the property of the king. 

The first evidence of the development of this 
idea began by the division of the empire into* 
provinces, over which were set men who were di- 

86 



OTHER PEOPLES 87 

rectly accountable to the king and who were to 
execute his law. This placed the police duty of 
the army in the hands of subordinates and made 
a demand for mental power rather than physical 
in the ruler. Mental power had found expression 
heretofore only in the speculations relative to the 
problem of life and death as expressed in the re- 
ligions of that time. Life's mysteries and the 
strange processes of nature for which they could 
not account from their conception of God led 
them to worship natural objects in many ways, 
depending on their environment. The conspicu- 
ous beauty of the heavens in the south led to the 
worship of the sun, the skill of the artist to the 
graven image, the admiration of physical beauty 
and attainments to mythical deities who were the 
embodiment of human grace or perfection of some 
kind. 

But the power of mind began to be recognized 
as a source of power and authority more or less in 
many parts of the world. The rapid rise and fall 
of empires in Mesopotamia and the evident lack 
of mental leadership or of an extensive develop- 
ment of this power made this part of the world an 
easy prey to those western people who brought 
this idea of authority by physical and mental 
might to the highest perfection. Greece and 
Rome, in their respective development of mental 
and physical might, brought this idea of author- 
ity to its highest achievement, and demonstrated 
its failure to produce a strong, pure character 



88 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

or to develop a complete manhood, physical, men- 
tal and spiritual. 

Greece early recognized her mental giants in 
religion and philosophy. Her development in a 
mental way was assisted by every encouragement 
that could be devised. The Helots were com- 
pelled to work that her great men might think. 
Her groves were turned into academies, her street 
corners were employed for the diffusion of wis- 
dom. The result was that in Greece could be 
found the beginning of almost every branch of 
science. Her philosophers were the most acute 
that the world had ever seen. 

But while they delved into the mysteries of na- 
ture and placed the entering wedge which, beyond 
question, has blessed immeasurably the times in 
which we live and the times to come, yet their own 
times were economically unjust and morally rot- 
ten. No attempt was ever made to teach their 
nation as a whole the truth they found. The 
Golden Age of Greece produced as great igno- 
ramuses as it did great thinkers. No attempt was 
made to raise the masses by the spread of a sin- 
gle noble thought. And why? Because the au- 
thority built on the might of mind could not be 
maintained where Solon and subject were men- 
tally equal. Their industrial system also was 
such that the masses must labor to give the few 
liberty and time to think. They could not con- 
ceive of a plan in which, all men being equal, they 
could all both labor and think. Their view of 



OTHER PEOPLES 89 

life gave them no such basis except in theory. 
The Helots were the loadstones about the neck of 
Greece dragging her to her death. Her republic 
could not live among men who had not learned 
to command their souls and bodies. Socrates, 
learned in discourse, was the glutton and de- 
bauchee at the feast. 

But Greece had reached her zenith and had 
brought her contribution of mental achievements 
to the world. She was going down. She had 
reached the fullness of her possibilities under her 
conception of authority, and in development was 
prepared for a higher ideal. She had marked the 
fullness of time. 

Rome, to the west, at the time of Christ had 
brought to its highest and fullest fruitage the 
idea of authority by physical might. Her legions 
had proved invincible and the world had been 
made a vast empire by their use. The power of 
Roman military ability is still of service to the 
warriors of to-day. The unit of the Roman 
army is made the unit of the armies to-day. But 
her manhood and womanhood were so corrupt that 
it finally was enervating the power of that army, 
integrity was going, liberty had flown, and the 
fall of the empire had already begun in the decay 
of her citizenship in the Golden Age of Augustus 
Caesar. 

Under the vast empire, however, peace spread 
but for a moment to permit the advent of the 
Prince of Peace. 



90 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

Thus it was demonstrated that man could not 
her mantle as if to lull the fierce passions of men 
build a noble, perfect manhood under the most 
conscientiously observed ritualism, the most highly 
developed institutions the mind could conceive, 
nor under the extended use of the power of phys- 
ical might. Man is triune and demands that 
every power of his being be given opportunity to 
grow, that he may become a happy, noble being 
and develop a character that is strong and last- 
ing. The time had fully come for a conception 
of life in which each sphere of man's triune na- 
ture should be understood and given its due 
prominence. Man could now think better than 
formerly, his perceptive faculties were more acute, 
and the demand for a more perfect knowledge 
seemed to come from every quarter. The full- 
ness of time had come, and the truth sought is to 
be found. 

Each development had borne its fruits to be 
of service to man in the fuller, larger life upon 
which he was about to enter, and were now crum- 
bling to ruin and decay. It was but a compara- 
tively short time from this period of history un- 
til these people who had been such prominent 
factors in the growth of man should pass almost 
entirely from the scene of action and a new peo- 
ple, primitive, crude and nomadic, not yet settled 
in a permanent home, and clinging to the idea of 
authority as held at the separation of Asia Minor, 
would begin to make for themselves permanent 



OTHER PEOPLES 91 

homes and begin to develop a character in accord 
with the idea of authority and of life given by 
Jesus Christ. 

It was among those most fully in possession 
of their souls that the truth was to be expected 
and the man arise whose abilities be least affected 
by the merely physical considerations of animal 
life. Men in many parts of the world were now 
in possession of their souls as far as mere thought 
was concerned, but the Jew alone could in degree 
master his soul and rise to the sovereign place 
of true manhood. Israel alone had produced men 
of this type and she alone could now be expected 
to bring forth the man in " whom there was no 
guile " and whose life and words would establish 
" Truth." 



CHAPTER IX 
THE EARLY LIFE OF CHRIST 

We have followed the progress of the Jew from 
the time of mental darkness until he had reached 
the fullest development of soul possible under 
ritualism. The ceremonies which had been em- 
ployed to accomplish this growth of faculty and 
disposition had made him a man to whom the out- 
ward form was essential regardless of whether 
it added nobility to the soul or gave mere physi- 
cal exultation. It made his view of life almost 
entirely material, even in its most spiritual phase, 
namely, close adherence to the intent of the Mo- 
saic law. 

But his mind had begun to see that there were 
laws or processes within his soul which if followed 
would make the Mosaic code unnecessary, as it 
more than filled the measure of the statue to fully 
conform to the laws of his being. We have no 
reason to think that this was realized in any defi- 
nite way, but merely as an instinctive reaching 
out for truth and the anticipation that the long 
expected time was at hand and a new kingdom was 
to come through the Prince of Peace, Emanuel. 
The reign of material means for accomplishing 
the enlargement and salvation of the soul was 
now to give way before the truth which would 



EARLY LIFE OF CHRIST 93 

establish the supremacy of the Spirit or conscious- 
ness in the direction of the soul. 

Let us recapitulate briefly, that we may be 
clear in our study of the life of Christ. The 
world at this time was under the political power 
of Rome. Peace was universal and religious lib- 
erty or tolerance was permitted. The intellec- 
tual world was permeated with the thought and 
wisdom of Greece, which moulded it until her im- 
print was evident in all the intellectual life of the 
time. Neither of these peoples was inclined to 
demand much morality of the people. Rome's 
principal demand was for strength and ability to 
lead her armies. Greece's demand was for more 
brains. The Jews alone demanded a life of moral 
rectitude and developed a character clean, strong 
and often spiritual. Their long career as an ex- 
clusive people had implanted deep and lasting 
prejudices in the mind, and their commercial life 
had so stamped itself upon them that it was to 
characterize them ever after. Their ceremonial 
religion, their industrial customs and their gov- 
ernment coming to them with the pronounced di- 
rection of God, made these above question in their 
minds. They were established by God, therefore 
they were right and would be everlasting. To 
violate this deep-rooted and time-honored preju- 
dice was to blaspheme the Almighty, and the of- 
fender was worthy of death. 

In general, Rome had organization, but lacked 
intellectual and spiritual development. Greece 



94 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

had brains, but lacked organization and spirit- 
ual growth. The Jew had spiritual growth but 
lacked in intellectual development and organiza- 
tion. This is the highest stage of development 
the human race had attained since men began 
their career. The curse brought upon Adam and 
Eve had not been removed in any large degree, 
but had been lightened. The belly or physical 
desire was the basis of almost all activity, perfect 
happiness was still rarely attained, woman was de- 
graded, the land was still tilled by the most ardu- 
ous methods and many physical wants kept the 
attention of man from the uncultivated garden of 
the soul. 

As the signs of the heavens predict the com- 
ing storm by displaying the atmospheric changes 
which create it, so the soul has foretold the crucial 
times when mankind was ready to advance a step 
by displaying the physical, mental and spiritual 
changes which make the old inadequate, and de- 
manding a new way. The atmosphere seems 
charged, the brains of men expectant, yet not 
sure ; wonder is aroused and imagination pictures 
the future, when a voice of one is heard express- 
ing what in a vague way was common to the 
thought of all, but unformed and inarticulate. 
It is a transitional cry framed in the words of the 
old seers and prophets; still it bespeaks the new 
by voicing unfilled prophecy. 

" Repent ye ; for the kingdom of heaven is at 



EARLY LIFE OF CHRIST 95 

hand. . . . Bring forth fruits meet for re- 
pentance. . . . And now also the axe is laid 
unto the root of trees, therefore every tree which 
bringeth not forth good fruits is hewn down and 
cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with wa- 
ter unto repentance ; but he that cometh after me 
is mightier than I. . . . He shall baptize 
you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Whose 
fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge 
his floor and gather his wheat into the garner ; but 
he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 

As Moses found a responsive cord in Abraham's 
children, so John was heard with sympathy. 
About him gathered the wondering Jews and 
heard their thoughts, their hopes, their much- 
prized prophecies expressed in dauntless, ringing 
tones. A nation waited for the man and the man 
was there. 

Life and its philosophy are united in the same 
way that nature and natural philosophy are allied. 
The one must be the exposition and the proof of 
the other. It is therefore not strange that the 
man who brought the world the true philosophy 
of life should find the history of his life the most 
powerful exposition of his views and philosophy. 
His life expressed truth, his words called atten- 
tion to its ruling motives and purposes. We 
must, therefore, investigate the history of that 
life, using his words as aids and indicators that 
will express its hidden forces. Christ removed 



96 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

in his own life the error which existed in the 
thought and lives of man, and gave the method 
by which he accomplished the development. 

It is well for us to have clearly in mind our 
conception of the soul. The soul, we have found, 
is not a part of our physical being. It consists 
of all those faculties or susceptibilities which de- 
pend for their activity upon the impressions re- 
ceived by the perceptive faculty, such as reason, 
memory, disposition, imagination, thought, and so 
on. This perceptive faculty, resting upon and 
intimately associated with the physical brain, re- 
ceives from its activities the conceptions which it 
uses in determining action, while the spirit pre- 
sents the condition and needs of the soul itself. 
Thus our perceptive faculty becomes the bound- 
ary line of the soul. The physical presents one 
set of laws, those of the material world and our 
physical being constituting the kingdom of this 
world, while the spirit presents another set of 
laws, those of the soul in its development consti- 
tuting another kingdom, which Christ refers to 
as the kingdom of heaven. 

It is not the chronological events of Christ's 
life that we wish to investigate in this study, but 
the life of the man which portrays the condition 
or the workings of the soul or real man. Life is 
in the soul and portrays the condition and work- 
ings of the soul. It is therefore an investigation 
of the soul of Jesus Christ that we are about to 
make, to understand its workings and his words. 



EARLY LIFE OF CHRIST 97 

The laws of action in the soul are largely unex- 
plored ground for us to-day. But we may hope 
in the future, as men realize and value more the 
development of the soul, that its laws may be- 
come more familiar to us and be more easily rec- 
ognized and used. 

It has pleased St. John to recapitulate briefly 
the Old Testamentary cosmology before begin- 
ning the life of Jesus Christ, and we will follow 
him. He thus pictures the creation of the uni- 
verse by the introduction of persistent force sub- 
ject to the Will or Word of God. " In the be- 
ginning was the word and the word was with God 
and the word was God. The same was in the be- 
ginning with God. All things were made by him ; 
and without him was not anything made that was 
made." He then conceived of the spiritual birth 
of man by the union with God, and gives voice to 
it in these words, " In him was life, and life was 
the light of men." But they refused it, " and the 
light shineth in darkness; and the darkness com- 
prehended it not." He thus covers laconically, 
yet fully, the story of the race before his day, 
and states that the conditions had changed. 

" There was a man sent from God, whose name 
was John. The same came for a witness, to bear 
witness of the light, that all men through him 
might believe. He was not that Light but 
was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was 
the true Light (God) which lighteth (gives spir- 
itual nature or consciousness to) every man that 



98 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

cometh into the world. He was in the world and 
the world was made by him, and the world knew 
him not. He (God) came unto his own, and his 
own received him not. But as many as received 
him to them gave he power to become the sons 
of God, even to them that believed on his name." 

We have noticed this experience especially in 
the rise of the Jew to a conscious observance of 
the Mosaic law, " which were born not of blood, 
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, 
but of God." It was not by the will or desire of 
the Jew that he rose, but by the Will of God, who 
developed the Jew in spite of himself. And now 
John comes to the man of the narrative. " And 
the Word was made flesh (Christ) and dwelt 
among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of 
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace 
and truth." 

What, then, is the position of Christ? He is 
the " Word made flesh." The Word is pictured 
as the voice giving direction to the original force 
of the universe, forming the universe and giving 
it laws and principles. It comes to man and is 
his conscience or spiritual nature, but men re- 
fused to use their spiritual natures and lived 
merely animal lives ; as many as did use it became 
spiritual. God chose Abraham because he was a 
man of strong and enthusiastic adherence to his 
conceptions, which possessed him and shaped and 
molded his destiny with remarkable and unswerv- 
ing constancy. This he bequeathed to his prog- 



EARLY LIFE OF CHRIST 99 

eny in a most remarkable degree. So that 
immersed in the excitement and fascination of 
physical pursuits as they were and leaning 
strongly and persistently toward them, God had 
a leverage upon them in this respect that enabled 
him to develop them despite their strong predis- 
position to animal life. 

Thus God opened their minds to a realization 
of a nobler existence, in which the physical was to 
be less prominent. It was then that the " Word 
was made flesh," and gave mankind an expres- 
sion in the life and words of Christ of the laws 
and principles implanted in man's nature and in 
the world about him. His life was the " Word," 
expressions of God, telling mankind of what God 
expected of all men, that man might become 
happy and find delight in his creation. 

The infancy of Christ must have been that of 
any child, the early years being spent in a con- 
quest of his physical being and in gaining an 
ability to control and command it, that it might 
act in accordance with the dictates of his will. It 
is impossible to logically think of Christ as other 
than a growing and developing man, bringing to 
men an example of the growth and development 
possible to them and explaining the true way of 
life. For were his native powers those of God it 
were mockery to ask men to imitate them. We 
do not deny the union of God and Christ, nor 
Christ's divinity by this statement. We sim- 
ply emphasize the fact that Christ was a man, as 



100 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

we are men. If we can understand him, follow 
his requirements and way of life, Christ must 
come within the knowable sphere of our life, both 
of sensation and consciousness, for these limit our 
attainments. 

We therefore conclude that the first activity of 
his soul was toward a mastery of his physique, 
and that days of childish delight in animal activi- 
ties were to him the same as with others. The 
circumstances surrounding his birth deeply im- 
pressed the importance of this child's mission 
upon his mother. While she stored them up and 
was reticent with others, this must have formed a 
singularly intimate union between the mother and 
the son. Her thoughts and her confidences must 
have brought to him very early in life the pur- 
pose of his birth, and called to his attention and 
deep consideration the thoughts and ideas of the 
ancient writers of the Bible. 

The question of life came to him with a weight 
of importance that could come only when its solu- 
tion was felt to be of the greatest moment to all 
and to depend on him. He was familiar with 
the Mosaic account of creation, the story of 
Adam, the low level on which man lived in Adam's 
posterity, the rise in Noah, Abraham, Moses, 
David, Isaiah and others. He knew well the 
prophesies foretelling the Messiah's coming, and 
the magnitude of his mission as well as the bless- 
ing it would be to mankind. He could not read 
it lightly and occupy himself with other things, 



EARLY LIFE OF CHRIST 101 

as those about him had done and were doing. He 
pondered upon it at all times. He found in each 
circumstances o»f life an aid to the perfect un- 
derstanding of the problem he was studying, 
namely, Life. 

We do not know much of his early life, but 
such a youth must have been thoughtful and earn- 
est, yet his investigations must have inspired him 
with hope and given him a cheerful disposition. 
He who delves deeply into the ways of the Al- 
mighty will learn to look into the future with 
pleasure and delight as he feels himself quickened 
and strengthened by the growth of the noblest 
and best within him, recognizing in this the handi- 
work of his Maker. 

This investigation of a clear, pure mind into 
the thoughts of the ancient Jewish writers no 
doubt gave Christ his view of life. Does this 
mean that he alone as a soul came to his point 
of view? No. No more than any man comes to 
a mental position not common to his fellows 
merely as an intellect or soul. It was that sub- 
tile influence of the spirit (or God), which in 
the deepest communion the soul has with it seems 
to lead and give originality to its workings, that 
could have given to Christ the clear insight into 
the laws of his own being and of man about him 
which characterizes his life and teachings. While 
the whole of the literature of his forefathers gave 
him the framework for his conception of life, 
there can be no doubt that Isaiah furnished him 



102 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

much of the detail of what his mission was to be 
and the results which his life and teachings were 
to bring to man. 

Isaiah reminded him that the restrictions and 
requirements of the Mosaic law " were shorter 
than a man could stretch himself on to, and the 
covering narrower than he could wrap himself in 
it " (Isa. xxviii. 20-29), and gave them a picture 
of the discriminating use which man makes of 
the laws of nature in securing the different crops. 
He gives each the care which the nature of the 
grain and the need it is to supply require, bring- 
ing to the active mind the thought that the capa- 
bilities of the soul demand and require the same 
discrimination and care. He further stated that 
(Isa. xi. 3-9) "The spirit of the Lord shall 
rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and under- 
standing, the spirit of council and might, the 
spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord ; and 
shall make him of quick understanding in the 
fear of the Lord ; and he shall not judge after the 
sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hear- 
ing of his ears; but with righteousness shall he 
judge the poor and reprove with equity for the 
meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth 
with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of 
his lips shall he slay the wicked. . , . The 
wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard 
shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the 
young lion and the fatling together; and a little 
child shall lead them. . . . They shall not 



EARLY LIFE OF CHRIST 103 

hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the 
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord 
as the waters cover the sea." 

He also states that the wilderness shall be 
reclaimed, wasting and destruction shall cease, 
that "mine elect shall long enjoy the work of 
their hands " and " not build and another in- 
habit, they shall not plant and another eat " (Isa. 
lxv. 21-22), but "they shall harken diligently 
unto me (God), and eat ye that which is good 
and let your soul delight itself in fatness." (Isa. 
lv. 2.) "A man shall be as a hiding place from 
the wind and as a covert from the tempest " (Isa. 
xxxii. 2), and " if thou draw out thy soul to the 
hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall 
thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as 
the noonday; and the Lord shall guide thee con- 
tinually and satisfy thy soul in droughts, and make 
fat thy bones, and thou shall be like a watered 
garden and like a spring of water whose waters 
fail not ; and they that be of thee shall build the 
old waste places ; thou shalt raise up the founda- 
tions of many generations; and thou shalt be 
called the repairer of the breach, the Restorer of 
paths to dwell in." (Isa. lviii. 10-12.) 

" And he shall judge among the nations, and 
shall rebuke many peoples ; and they shall beat 
their swords into plowshares and their spears 
into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up 
sw^ord againt nation, neither shall they learn war 
any more." (Isa. ii. 4.) " And a highway shall 



104 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

be there, and a way, and it shall be called the 
way of holiness (helpfulness) ; the unclean shall 
not pass over it; but it shall be for those; the 
wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err 
therein," (Isa. xxxv. 8.) The thought of phy- 
sique, other than a means to an end, was set 
aside by Isaiah with the words, " Cease ye from 
man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein 
is he to be accounted of?" (Isa. ii. 22.) 
Isaiah's picture included a universal salvation of 
man, in which man shall be relieved of his care, his 
burden of needless and excessive toil, comfort 
shall come to the mourner, and good things to the 
meek and joy and gladness to be the lot of man. 

We may presume these thoughts were imbibed 
by the mind of the child among the earliest that 
it was possible for him to have. They were the 
constant subject of conversation, comment and 
discussion in his home. The circumstances of life 
were looked upon from this point of view, and 
his parents, much above the average intellec- 
tually, were instrumental in furthering materially 
the conclusions of his marvelously precocious 
mind. His habit of retiring for hours of quiet 
thought and meditation must have been formed 
early in life, and became one of the most de- 
lightful pastimes of his early youth. Upon the 
summit of the high cliff back of the village he 
probably spent many long hours in deep thought 
upon the environment of the village, with its 
comprehensive knowledge of the life of each 



EARLY LIFE OF CHRIST 105 

member and of the industrial, social and political 
institutions of his times. 

It was probably about this time, when the in- 
justices, crudities and curse of existing condi- 
tions were bearing down upon him and filling 
him with pity as well as indignation as he con- 
trasted them with the bright picture of Isaiah, 
that Christ reached the age when he was entitled 
to enjoy the feast of the Passover in Jerusalem, 
He who is thoroughly conversant with the ma- 
chinery of existing institutions through the 
country districts will be most thoroughly com- 
petent to understand the more emphatic display 
of them in a congested population. The evil 
which existed in the institutions and customs of 
his times was well known to him in his humble life 
in Galilee. This was a phase of the problem 
to which he was giving his life. He had grown 
up with this problem, having it presented both 
for study by himself and as earnestly considered 
by his parents, who, no doubt, gave him their 
best thoughts and the truths of life which their 
longer experience had taught them; and so 
his naturally precocious mind would be 
thoroughly conversant with the details and work- 
ings of the institutions and customs of his times 
as his observations, quickened by this knowledge, 
made him familiar with the dire results. In other 
words, he had a thorough knowledge of condi- 
tions that were to be met, but had not as yet an 
adequate remedy. He was only a peasant. But 



106 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

a man, unabsorbed by position, neither political, 
ecclesiastical or financial, unbiassed by the 
teacher's trend of thought and approaching the 
problem with simplicity and single-heartedness, 
alone could reach normal conclusions. How did 
he acquire it? A clear, active mind, the phe- 
nomena about him and the Jewish writings were 
enough. 

As he was passing the porch of the Temple 
the Rabbi of the Sanhedrin were holding open 
council with the multitudes, answering their 
questions and teaching them from the law of the 
prophets. He eagerly availed himself of the 
opportunity to learn more of the perplexing 
problem before him and remained near them for 
days. He was finally noticed, and perhaps asked 
if he desired any special questions answered, and 
accepted the opportunity to ask of the Rabbis 
concerning life. His eager questions were not 
understood by the masters, who found it neces- 
sary to ask explanations from the youth, who- 
astonished them by his understanding of life and 
by his answers. 

The truths of the scriptures had been, imbibed 
with the truths of his daily life, until the thoughts 
of the seers of Isreal had become inseparably con- 
nected with those of his every-day life and the 
conditions under which it was lived. Thus life 
became a un,it in his mind. The different insti- 
tutions about him, which testified of the triple 



EARLY LIFE OF CHRIST 107 

character in which man viewed life as political, 
industrial and religious, did not bewilder him, 
but each simply contained a different expression 
of the one life. 

His visit to Jerusalem increased his knowledge 
both by his contact with the leaders of Jewish 
thought and also by his contact with the multi- 
tude of the city. This probably marked the 
close of his childhood. The maturing process 
which indicates the transition from youth to man- 
hood began, in which the mere acquisition of 
knowledge is changed into an ability to use the 
brain in arriving at conclusions. This change 
from the delight of physical activity to the de- 
light of the activity of the soul is evidently what 
Paul referred to when he spoke of laying aside 
childish things. 

With his mind filled with the thoughts which 
his contact with the Rabbi had given him, their 
evident ill-appreciation of the conditions about 
them, and their seeming indifference to the con- 
sequences which appeared to him so appalling, he 
accompanied his parents to their home in 
Nazareth. 

Impatient and rebellious thoughts must have 
come to him as he studied further the conditions 
about him, which cast the blight of retrogression 
on the minds of some through excessive toil, the 
seared conscience in others, who took their ease; 
the ugly disposition which the hatred between 



108 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

these classes caused, as well as the universal loss 
occasioned by utter lack of attention given to the 
development and government of the soul. 

In the hour of quiet thought and meditation 
what a relief to turn to the ideals of Isaiah, 
and picture with the colors of imagination the 
bright future that was to be. The Mosaic law 
found no place in this vision, for ritualism and 
form could not awaken the whole soul or bring 
forth a perfect symmetry of manhood. Freedom 
must be had to vary the treatment as the con- 
ditions and needs of each soul demand. Dis- 
crimination and care must be exercised that none 
of the attributes or abilities be lost or their de- 
velopment checked. To accomplish this the con- 
sciousness of man, his spirit, must gain complete 
ascendancy over the soul so that all its workings 
may be known. 

The quiet workings of the laws of God in the 
growth of the soul or in the gradual removal of 
that portion which is left idle and unused would 
become well known to all. Man would not then 
judge by the mere evidences of the senses, but 
these would present to him the conditions of the 
soul's growth. The words of such men would 
lure their fellows from their pursuit of sensuous 
things to the development of the soul. 

Each man would then be satisfied to have his 
physical wants supplied. Those who worked 
would use the fruits of their labors, for none 
would appropriate the toil of another for his ease 



EARLY LIFE OF CHRIST 109 

and physical comfort. The laws of God in 
nature and in the soul would be too well known 
to be thus violated. A perfect comradeship, em- 
bracing every member of this communal band, 
would exist, and the soul of every man would 
delight itself in the abundance of its possessions 
in the soul, which would be the fullness and fat- 
ness of each life. 

A Man would become a storehouse within him- 
self from whose hiding place he could draw out 
food for those who had not gained as much as 
he and whose bodily afflictions opened to them 
fewer avenues through which to receive the ma- 
terial of growth. In giving out their souls to 
those about them men would grow, and the per- 
plexities of their own lives would fade away as 
they became more perfectly acquainted with the 
workings of the souls of their f ellowmen. 

The effect of this service will be like the water- 
ing of a garden in perfecting growth and making 
progress rapid and substantial. The work will 
be so desirable to those engaged in it that they 
will enter with joy into the task of reclaiming 
the wasted souls of those about them. Thus shall 
they open new paths of life to others and cause 
them to find a delight in life that will make it 
worth the living. 

As these men multiplied among the nations, 
and their thoughts began to find ascendancy, the 
demand for the abolition of war would be 
heard, and slowly the warlike spirit would die out, 



110 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

and they would cease " to learn war any more." 
The reign of peace would not only spread its 
mantle over the clash of arms, but the strife for 
maintenance of life would also cease. Through- 
out the whole realm of animal life the law of 
self preservation was operative, but this also must 
now cease. The domestic animal would slowly 
replace the wild one, and the intelligence of man 
would provide for their wants in such abundance 
that strife for existence would no longer be known 
among them. This had already been learned by 
those men who, caring little for sensuous things 
aside from those needed for maintenance, would 
not waste time over what was unnecessary, but 
would live in harmony and fellowship with their 
neighbors. 

To accomplish this there must be plan, " a 
way/' and "it shall be called the way of (help- 
fulness) holiness; the unclean (the mere physi- 
cal man) shall not pass over it (or live by it) ; 
but it shall be for those; the wayfaring men, 
though fools, shall not err therein." Men would 
thus cease to live in the activities of " man whose 
breath is in his nostrils," and would become en- 
grossed in the true issues of life, which are the 
fruitage of the soul. This salvation would be 
extended to man, and relieve him of his burdens 
and cares, and the curse which has been his from 
the time of Adam. 

But the hard, stern realities of life ; the dwarf- 
ing of the human soul; the curse which blights 



EARLY LIFE OF CHRIST 111 

the winsome nature of childhood, and often pro- 
duces the seared and repulsive figure of advanced 
age; the loneliness of the world caused by the 
absorbing strife for wealth, brought the truth to 
Christ with terrible force, that " the way " had 
not been given that would connect the miserable 
present with this bright future. His familiarity 
with life and the environment in which it was 
lived caused him soon to notice that, although 
the whole life of men was occupied in material 
activities, the fascination and delight which was 
afforded them came from the exercise and 
increased ability of the soul. The trader enjoyed 
his ability to read human nature and appropriate 
to his advantage the caprice of his customers. 
The public speaker found a peculiar delight in 
his ability to play upon the emotions of his audi- 
ence. The priest was satisfied with his ability to 
control men in the interest of the church. The 
workingman strove to excel in the inventive and 
creative powers he possessed. All were living in 
some attribute of the human soul, and in its exer- 
cise found the pleasure and joy of manhood and 
womanhood. 

In early life men live in the delight of phy- 
sical activity, but the delight and blessings of 
maturity are in the activities of the soul. Christ 
saw that the laws governing the human soul were 
not fully known, and its conquest and direction 
were considered in the most vague light possible. 
The laws of the natural world were recognized 



112 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

and studied that the advantage which men coveted 
might be theirs. This laid a foundation for the 
conception and use of the laws of the soul ; but as 
yet man knew but little of these laws, and was 
not capable of appreciating the true life he was 
living. 

The condition of the soul determines the con- 
dition of existence. The present is filled with 
sorrow, misery and error because of the dwarfed, 
shrivelled and erroneous condition in which the 
soul is allowed to exist. If the existing condi- 
tions mirror the souls of men at present, the 
bright picture which was drawn for the future 
must be a picture of what the soul of man would 
become in order to attain it. The laws of growth 
of the soul must be known in order that changed 
conditions may arise and a new day dawn. 

He who could master the intricacies of the 
human soul and give to men knowledge of its 
laws, impressing upon them the urgent need of 
following them, alone could lay the foundation 
for the development of character in man that 
would reflect in life the beautiful word-painting 
of Isaiah. The attention of Christ was thus 
centered upon the soul of man that he might be- 
come " master of it. 55 " And Jesus increased in 
wisdom and stature and in favor with God and 
man." 



CHAPTER X 
CHRIST'S VIEW OF LIFE 

The days of quiet private life for Christ were 
over. He had given them to the problem of life, 
and now with the vision cleared by the subtle in- 
fluence which the spirit possesses to lead the soul 
into original realms of thought, he was ready to 
give his fellowmen the truths which his life was 
demonstrating and his words were now to make 
public. 

John was already proclaiming that the hour 
had arrived and that one would follow him who 
would baptize not with water but with the spirit. 
Entering the crowd which surrounded this en- 
thusiast, Christ was recognized by him and pro- 
claimed the man. Engrossed in the solution of 
the problem before him, which was now clear in 
his mind, he had not turned his attention to the 
means he was to employ to introduce his thoughts 
to the people about him. His person must be the 
vehicle of his thoughts, but how was he to ap- 
proach his fellowmen with his ideas? 

He found his inclinations tending toward the 
existing institutions of his times and, as was his 
custom, he withdrew himself from the companion- 
ship of men to fully consider the matter and de- 
termine upon his course of action. 
113 



114 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

The discussion within his soul was long, and 
drove him far from the haunts of man. He felt 
the pangs of hunger and the urgency which man- 
kind has felt that they be satisfied. The suc- 
cessful men about him were enthusiastic in their 
plans for commercial success, and he had felt his 
mind kindle with thoughts of industrial achieve- 
ment. He was also aware that the forces of 
nature could be so harnessed as to lighten won- 
drously the toil necessary for the production of 
food and clothing. Could he enter the economic 
life of the people and bring salvation to the soul? 
Would his ability to increase the ease with which 
men are fed awaken their soul? Why not dis- 
close the possibilities of nature, harness her to 
do the toil, as man is doing to-day, and gain 
entrance into the thoughts and ideas of the 
human soul through these changed conditions? 
The improved conditions would brighten the 
thoughts of men by varied opportunity and 
knowledge. 

It is the old problem, Can you make man by 
making his environment? Or is there a needed 
lesson in the effort to create this for himself? In 
the world of to-day, nature does our work for us 
in part. The fruits of earth can be brought to 
our doors in abundance for every man with but 
four hours work per day, if all able-bodied men 
and women do their share. Man seems to find it 
only necessary to command (that is, to create a 
demand) and it is done for him by those who rise 



CHRIST'S VIEW OF LIFE 115 

to the opportunity. From our position we can 
look back and behold his wisdom, his under- 
standing and his far-sightedness. He would have 
had a disorganized mob. We have organized 
commerce; he would have none who understood 
him, none who knew the way, none to lead but 
himself. We have numerous well equipped lead- 
ers who understand the situation fully. He 
would have met failure; we may feel assured of 
further success. 

But while commerce has for its object the food, 
drink and raiment of physical life, it has been 
productive of another life which has not been 
attained by bread but by the work, the thought, 
the experiments, the discoveries, the adjustment 
to these discoveries, the marshalling of men to 
industrial conquest, the gathering of material for 
the demands of men and the organization of it all. 
This life is not physical. It is the life of the 
soul and feeds upon the efforts to secure bread, 
not upon bread. So the physical man alone is 
sustained by food received from the earth; the 
real man, or the soul, must have other and much 
different food with which to live. The soul's life 
must be quickened by God as the soul is used. 
The body of man is fed more easily only when the 
soul of man lives better. Man does not live by ' 
bread alone. 

Having thrown aside the thought of removing 
this one curse of the fall and thus calling at- 
tention to the cultivation of the soul, Christ's 



116 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

thoughts turned naturally to the ecclesiasticism 
under which he had been reared. The Holy 
Temple, the reverence in which it was held, the 
conception of God by the people, would certainly 
be the proper avenue through which to appeal to 
the masses. Then, too, the Messiah was the hope 
of the people, and the ideal of the priest. As 
he thought of the ideas, prejudices and hopes 
surrounding the Messiah, he beheld himself upon 
the pinnacle of the church of Israel, occupying 
the highest place in its religious conceptions. 
Establish his Messiahship, and all this world 
would be his to use and control at his desire. He 
could picture himself lifted by popular enthus- 
iasm, the pent-up feelings and hopes of the 
people, ruling characteristics of the Jew, to first 
place. If he cast himself upon this popular feel- 
ing, he would be supreme. God would assist him 
to fashion man by gradual steps into a perfect 
soul. He would not blunder. God had used this 
avenue for centuries and certainly would sustain 
him in his efforts. 

But when he investigated he found that while 
ritualistic forms and sacrifices would develop the 
soul, it would not give men command over the 
soul. The rite did not cause them to see the law 
which governed the soul in its growth. The man 
who governed himself knowing the processes of 
of his own being needed no rite or ordinance to 
govern him. Man must know the law of his soul 
to master his soul. He must tell of these laws. 



CHRIST'S VIEW OF LIFE 117 

The rites and ordinances of Moses would be ful- 
filled then, but to cling to them invited failure to 
fully express truth. 

The church was no longer a part of the polit- 
ical and economic life of the times but held a 
place aside from these, sacred and aloof. This 
rendered her impotent in secular affairs as far as 
any remedy for existing ills was concerned. She 
had become a prop and stay to the more aggres- 
sive political and commercial life by her recogni- 
tion of their necessity and practicability. The 
prejudice and narrowness of the Rabbi blinded 
them to their true position. Christ saw that 
nothing could be expected of them. The church- 
man, if he followed, would be afar off. 

Having disposed of both the commercial and 
religious institutions as inadequate to serve his 
purpose, he turned his attention to the political 
power of his times to examine and see whether it 
would be of service to him. This was the strong- 
est institution. All others bent to it and were 
changed and modified at its decree. Would not 
this be the power that he would wish? Could he 
not by the use of it fashion the other institutions 
at his will? 

But the source of this power he found vested 
in a conception of authority in the human soul. 
This conception recognized the authority of 
physical might now, but as the soul of man grew 
in knowledge and wisdom this conception would 
change to the idea of service. With the changed 



118 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

conception the institutions would become differ- 
ent. While now it directed and controlled all oth- 
ers, the day must come when it would be absorbed 
in the administration of the other two. Those in 
political authority would then become, not rulers, 
but servants of mankind in all their social activ- 
ities. This power was therefore unstable. His 
conception of life would eventually undermine it 
and change it from a sovereign to a servile power. 

The highest service he could render was obedi- 
ence to the laws of God implanted in his soul, 
and a service to his fellowmen that would cause 
them to do the same. This problem settled, he 
returned to his home in Nazareth and began to 
preach and teach. 

He commanded attention both by his enthus- 
iasm and by the accurate and positive knowledge 
he had of life. He spoke of the simple work- 
ings of the soul. His auditors could search the 
inward workings of their own being for evidence 
which his utterances recalled. His command of 
the force of nature attested a perfect union of 
God and man, so that the volitionary control of 
the force emanating from God and attesting his 
universal presence was responsive to his bidding, 
helped to attract multitudes to him. 

Christ declares that he did nothing himself, but 
that God, administering the forces of nature, per- 
formed the works which his intimacy with his con- 
sciousness or spirit gave him power to have 
" dominion over. 55 A large crowd was following 



CHRIST'S VIEW OF LIFE 119 

him from many quarters of the country when he 
went into a mountain, and when his disciples were 
about him, he gave them the following views of 
life or of the activities of the human soul and 
body. 

It is thought that this occasion was thoroughly 
planned and was made in response to a growing 
demand on the part of his followers for a state- 
ment of his position. Before this utterance his 
miracles fade into insignificance. This is in 
truth the grandest act of any man. It is what all 
ages have attempted to do and he alone did, 
namely, give a true philosophy of lif e. 

He divides his statements into two general 
divisions. 

First. The beatitudes show the general atti- 
tude or trend which is given man by the con- 
science, when permitted full control. 

They have an advantage, or it is well with 
them, who feel a need of controlling their soul; 
for they shall ultimately possess this kingdom. 

They have an advantage who mourn ( over their 
loss in soul) ; for they shall be comforted (as they 
repossess their souls.) 

They have an advantage who are not self -as- 
serting, but are meek; for they shall have true 
possession of earth by their ability to enjoy her 
(in their souls). 

They have an advantage who hunger and thirst 
(ardently desire) right relationships; for they 
shall find them. 



120 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

They have an advantage who are merciful ; for 
mercy shall be given them (by their fellows). 

They have an advantage who are pure in 
heart (soul) ; for they shall behold God (in every- 
thing). 

It is well for them that make peace ; for they 
shall be recognized as obeying the laws of God 
(in their own being). 

It is well for them that are persecuted for 
righteousness 5 sake; for they have command of 
their souls (in a large degree). 

It is well for you when men shall revile you and 
persecute you and shall say all manner of evil 
against you falsely, on my account. Be glad on 
account of it, for you have made progress in 
regaining your souls. They treated the prophets 
thus and, unless you have progressed, they will 
not bother you. 

Luke gives their opposites: 

" But woe unto you (it is not your advantage) 
that are rich (have an abundance of material 
things only) ; for ye have received your consola- 
tion (or all that these things can bring you). 

" Woe unto you that are full (or satisfied with 
material things only or with what you have 
done) for you shall hunger (and want for a de- 
velopment which you have lost). Woe unto you 
that laugh now (and pass the time in mere 
gayety); for ye shall mourn and weep (for 
loss of possession of your soul by neglect and 
idleness). 



CHRIST'S VIEW OF LIFE 121 

" Woe unto you when all men shall speak well 
of you, for so did your fathers to the false 
prophets." (Your progress does not exceed 
theirs enough to be noticed). 

Second. The remainder of the sermon or 
statement gives the laws governing the human 
soul in its development. It is a remarkable fact 
that in these laws almost exclusively it is the 
qualities of the disposition which he seeks to im- 
prove. The disposition of man is here made the 
real battle ground of the ages. The perceptions 
must grow in keenness. Memory must develop. 
Reason must be accurate in its conclusions. It is 
the disposition, however, which gives color to our 
moral life. The Christian is made to develop the 
disposition in accord with the general laws of the 
spirit which supervises his growth and is thus 
made to grace and adorn him. The man who 
does not thus govern himself displays loss of 
mental power, lack of supervision, and is dis- 
figured by the ugly disposition he has fastened 
upon himself. 

To briefly summarize: 

Christ emphasizes the fact that the growth of 
soul is the purpose of all, the salt of the earth 
and the light of the world. Cultivate it. 

The Mosaic law must be fulfilled, but more than 
its outward requirements are demanded that we 
may be moral men or living souls. 

He now begins with the traits of our disposi- 



122 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

tions which display their ugly side, and shows 
how to remove the blight. 

He would pacify anger before it becomes 
hatred. It will grow if you do not check it. It 
lessens the worth of man, and opens the door to 
murder. 

The lustful desire has the same effect upon the 
soul as the lustful act. Root it out, for it is bet- 
ter to lose the power of desire than to allow it to 
dominate all and blight the whole soul. 

Let your statements be simple and plain. Your 
effort to establish them by other than fact is of 
no real value. An oath gives opportunity for 
deceit, tends to evil, but adds nothing to fact. 

Evil is a result of ideas, not physical force. 
Do not use physical force but truth to fight it. 
You cultivate combativeness by doing so and ac- 
complish nothing. " Resist not evil but over- 
come evil with good." 

If you want to develop love, extend it to your 
enemies. It requires conscious effort to do this. 
If you only love those who love you, it will not 
occasion growth of this ability. 

Alms, prayers or fasting done to be seen but 
minister to vanity. When done in secret the re- 
sult will be seen in the outward life. 

HE WOULD TURN AVARICE AND GREED INTO A 
DESIRE FOR TREASURE OF SOUL. 

You cannot build an estate and the soul at the 
same time. One or the other will be neglected. 
The fowl, the animal and the grass are not oc- 



CHRIST'S VIEW OF LIFE 123 

cupied with the food, drink or raiment question 
because the duty they perform in the economy 
of creation does not demand it. They are 
scavengers, who make sanitary a world which 
death and decay would make loathsome ; they sub- 
due the insect, which, if unchecked, would be a 
pest ; they form a food supply, performing a part 
in converting soil (stone) into nourishment for 
higher forms of life. Man, if he is occupied with 
these things, is placing himself on the plane of 
the vegetable and animal life in his task. But 
there is no attendant result in man from this 
activity. He cannot " add one cubit unto his 
stature," there is not a higher life (physically) 
to which he ministers. The only result he can 
secure is the effect upon 1 i# s disposition. He is 
working for nothing in the plan of the universe, 
but getting a development which he does not con- 
trol. Seek first this growth of being. The food, 
drink and raiment will be added to you. You 
cannot make them. 

BE LENIENT IN JUDGMENT, RECOGNIZING YOUB 
OWN NEED OF THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. 

be discreet, if a man cannot understand you. 
Do not open to him your experiences. He will 
but laught at them. 

Be aggressive. Ask, seek and knock if you 
want anything. You get it, among yourselves, 
that way. You can get it from God the same 
way. Go after it in the way that seems open to 
get it. 



124 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

Be cautious. If a thing appears true, 
watch it until you see final results before accept- 
ing it. The end tells every time. 

Be consistent. If you claim to be culti- 
vating you soul and are not, but just talking, 
you will get no result and will be found out. It 
may work for a while, but not in the end. 

If you do as suggested, namely, let the spirit 
rule the development of disposition and follow 
the laws of the soul as given, " I will liken him 
unto a wise man which builded upon a rock (his 
soul, the basis of his work and his ability to 
command and use and mould it, the house). And 
the rains descended and the floods came and the 
winds blew and beat upon that house; and it fell 
not, for it was founded upon a rock. (When the 
trials, crisis or the destruction of the physical 
comes, he will stand firm, for it is but the instru- 
ment with which he has wrought that is 
threatened, the building is beyond the reach of 
these influences. He has built on his soul, 
wrought in the principles of his being that are 
eternal, and the destruction of the instrument with 
which he has built cannot effect the structure he 
has reared. He looks calm above the storm for 
its fury but frees him forever from its dominion. 
His life work is safe.) 

" And every one that heareth these sayings of 
mine and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a 
foolish man, which built his house upon the sand 
(his physical maintenance and aggrandizement.) 



CHRIST'S VIEW OF LIFE 125 

And the rain descended, and the floods came and 
the winds blew and beat upon that house and it 
fell, and great was the fall of it. (When the 
trial, crisis or the destruction of the body in death 
comes, all for which he wrought, the treasures he 
has gained, are swept away. But his soul is cul- 
tivated if he has pursued a course that has de- 
veloped his faculties and disposition, in a way he 
has asked for, sought for and worked for. He 
purposed to have wealth, power, perhaps, and he 
has them, maybe. But the physique to which 
wealth may minister is gone, as is the person which 
administered the power, but the desire for wealth 
and the thirst for power are in the squI and are 
eternal. Thus he has the desire for these things, 
the habits of thought, his mental attitude toward 
his fellowmen, etc., crystalized by years of 
growth, while the material man to which they 
ministered and aggrandized has gone from him 
forever, or if not yet gone the habits curse his 
life, blight his happiness and cast gloom over all. ) 



CHAPTER XI 
CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 

We have viewed life as Christ saw it at the be- 
ginning of his preaching. This expression, how- 
ever full and complete, is of a soul that has 
thought long and well upon the question of life 
and formulated a verbal expression of the truths 
he has found and lived. In private his views ex- 
pressed in his life formed one of the many pecu- 
liar characters with which the world has always 
been filled. His quiet, retiring nature did not 
give him or his words enough publicity to be of 
any marked influence above other men of equal re- 
pute for wisdom and virtue, except perhaps 
among his intimates. These were probably very 
few. 

The circumstances were altered now, however. 
He must meet the questions and environments of 
his time and make his truth applicable to average 
human life. He must give his utterances and 
way of life wide publication and comment. His 
control of natural forces commanded attention or 
advertised him. This control was not inherent 
in Christ. He said, " I do nothing of myself." 
This control of force is vested in God. Christ 
was in full accord with God's plan for man and 
secured the dominion over the earth and its liv- 
ing creatures intended. 

126 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 127 

He traveled over Palestine, speaking to large 
multitudes of people who flocked to hear him, 
quite as the people of to-day will assemble to 
hear a man who has won renown. Only to every 
community Christ went he rendered direct service 
by ministrations to physical ills and misfortunes 
far in excess of any demands his coming might 
make upon them. His words were spoken to 
men who had never heard them used with the 
meanings which he gave them and fell often upon 
ears that could not divine their purport. Time 
was needed to color the vocabularies of men so as 
to fully express the truths which lie hidden in the 
inmost constitution of man. But they were suf- 
ficiently plain to open to their minds truths which 
were so unmistakeable that they were compelled 
to think, and these thoughts Christ studied to 
know and frequently knew them through his dis- 
ciples. 

He was approached one day by men who were 
carrying " one sick of the palsy, lying on a bed," 
and his well-known power to control the forces 
of nature was sought in relief of the man. " See- 
ing their faith " in his ability to do this, he said 
unto the sick of the palsy : " Son, be of good 
cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." This at once 
aroused the prejudice and disapproval of those 
about him, which he discerned. Why do you re- 
sent this? he asked. "For whether is easier to 
say, Thy sins be forgiven thee ; or to say, Arise 
and walk ? " There is no difference, for when a 



128 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

thing is forgiven the consequences are removed. 
We noticed before how man might be relieved 
of the consequences of sin (or error) in his soul 
by a systematic effort to overcome the habit of 
thought and> action, and how God forgave (or 
removed) the evil consequences in answer to his 
efforts or prayer. " But," said Christ, " that ye 
may know that the son of man (man with a soul) 
hath power on earth to forgive sins," then said 
he to the sick of the palsy, " Arise, take up thy 
bed and go unto thine house," and he arose. This 
would seem incredible. But if God expresses 
himself through the forces of nature and has 
placed a penalty on the violation of his laws, is it 
incredible that the man who seeks the intimate 
fellowship of God, which is possible in his con- 
sciousness and in obedience to his laws in soul and 
body, should receive the same forgiveness as he 
does in soul? No. The truth is that every ef- 
fort man has made to live nearer the laws of 
nature's God has been rewarded by the removal 
of the consequences of their violation. Thus 
better sanitary conditions have lessened epidemics 
and will in time no doubt cause them to cease. 

We find every circumstance of his life is met in 
such a way as to throw light on his peculiar view 
of things. The followers of John the Baptist 
noticed that he did not follow their customs of 
fasting, and they approached him to know the 
reason. He replied : " Can the children of the 
bride chamber mourn (or can those beginning a 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 129 

new life, or way of life, mourn) as long as (he 
who is opening this new life to them) the bride- 
groom is with them? But the days will come 
when the bridegroom shall be taken from them 
and then they shall fast (and deny themselves 
to live as he taught). No man putteth a piece 
of new cloth (or a new conception) unto an old 
garment (the institution or custom which has 
clothed or expressed the old conception) ; for that 
which is put in to fill it up taketh from the (in- 
stitution or custom) garment (of the thought or 
idea) and the rent (or undesirable feature) is 
made worse." Just as to-day the new ideas of 
the trust and labor union put into the old customs 
of competitive commerce make the difficulty or 
rent worse, and the struggle more bitter and 
fierce. " Neither do men put new wine ( or en- 
ergy) into old bottles (methods or ways) else the 
bottles break (the methods prove impractical) 
and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish 
(or the energy is wasted and the methods as well 
as the purpose sought are abandoned,) but they 
put new wine (energy) into new bottles (meth- 
ods) and both are preserved." 

Christ about this time became deeply impressed 
with the narrow and limited scope of his efforts. 
He saw about him multitudes that were not 
touched by his words and thoughts. He there- 
fore called about him his twelve chosen compan- 
ions to whom he had been teaching his view of 
life and addressed them before sending them out 



130 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

among the people to widen as much as possible 
the scope of his work. After giving them some 
directions as to the conduct of their work, he 
attempted to call their attention to some of the 
workings of the human soul. 

" Behold," he said, " I send you forth as sheep 
(physically humble and submissive) in the midst 
of wolves (those physically active and aggres- 
sive) ; be ye therefore wise as serpents (by 
understanding the purpose of your life) and 
harmless as doves (by not attempting to further 
your own physical condition at the expense of 
others). But beware of men (when you have 
aroused their prejudices and run counter to their 
ideas) ; for they will deliver you up to the coun- 
cils, and they will scourge you in their syna- 
gogues and ye shall be brought before gover- 
nors and kings for my sake (or on account of 
my thoughts and teachings) for a testimony 
against them and the Gentiles (attesting the mere 
animal or physical life they lead). 

" But when they deliver you up, take no 
thought how and what ye shall speak (as you 
have no way of knowing what opposition you 
have aroused in the souls of your opponents) ; 
for it shall be given you in that same hour what 
ye shall speak (for the character of opposition 
will show itself then, and if you know the soul of 
man you will understand how to answer). For 
it is not ye that speaketh, but the spirit of your 
Father which speaketh in you (or it is not you, 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 131 

a soul, that replies to the words and thoughts of 
your opponent, but your spirit or consciousness 
which has acquainted you with the workings of 
the human soul and thus gives you the power to 
appreciate the condition of those about you and 
enables you to meet them). 

" And the brother shall deliver up the brother 
to death, and the father the child; and the chil- 
dren shall rise up against their parents and cause 
them to be put to death (so strong will the hold 
of the prevailing ideas and prejudices be and 
so bitterly will men contend against a change). 
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's 
sake (because of the ideas I give) ; but he that 
endureth to the end shall be saved (or he that 
persists in the development of his soul and those 
about him, shall lose nothing by death). 

"But when they persecute you in this (one) 
city, flee ye into another, for verily I say unto 
you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of 
Israel till the son (soul) of man be come (or 
the soul of man be awakened). The disciple is 
not above his master, nor the servant above his 
Lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as 
his master, and the servant as his Lord (I have 
worked thus and am so working. You must ex- 
pect to do the same and get the same treatment). 
If they have called the master of the house Beel- 
zebub, how much more shall they call them of his 
household? Fear them not therefore, for there is 
nothing covered (or unknown in regard to the 



132 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

soul of man) that shall not be revealed; and hid, 
that shall not be known. What I tell you in dark- 
ness (and in your ignorance), that speak ye in 
light (now that you perceive it) ; and what ye 
hear in the ear (and have merely heard of me 
and do not understand) that preach ye upon the 
housetops (that by speaking of it openly 
it will be investigated and some will prove its 
truth). 

" And fear not them which kill the body, but 
are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him 
which is able to destroy both soul and body in 
hell (or bring you to a condition where misery, 
remorse and degradation are supreme). Are not 
two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of 
them shall not fall on the ground, without your 
Father (for God must administer the law of grav- 
itation or it would not fall). But the very hairs 
of your head are numbered. Fear ye not there- 
fore, ye (your souls) are of more value than many 
sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess me 
(and expresses me, my ways of life, my thoughts, 
my actions, or development of soul) before men, 
him will I confess (I will find a common basis of 
comradeship with him or a mutual ground will ex- 
ist between us. He will express me and I will ex- 
press him. We will both be interested in the 
growth of the soul) before my Father which is 
in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before 
men (and refuse to cultivate his soul), him will 
I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 133 

(or I shall find no basis for comradeship, no com- 
mon ground between us). 

" Think not that I am come to send peace on 
earth (No. My ideas will not make peace on 
earth). I came not to send peace, but a sword. 
(My thoughts will awaken the prejudices and 
antagonisms of men, and cause the most extreme 
resistance from them). For I am come to set a 
man at variance against his father, and the 
daughter against her mother, and the daughter- 
in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's 
foes shall be they of his own household. (Each 
individual who pursues my way of life and de- 
velopes his soul will find opposition from all who 
are engrossed in mere physical pursuits, even if 
these be the members of his own family and clos- 
est of kin.) 

" He that loveth father or mother more than 
me (who represent development of soul) is not 
worthy of me (or my development) ; and he that 
loveth son or daughter more than (the devel- 
opment of soul which I represent) is not worthy 
of (that development). And he that taketh not 
his cross (or that which he must conquer in life 
so as to follow Christ's method of enlarging the 
soul) and followeth after (my way) is not 
worthy of (my development). (In short, you 
must give your best attention to the development 
of the soul if you secure the most of which it is 
capable.) He that findeth his life (in physical 
pleasures and pursuits) shall lose it (in the 



134 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

soul) ; and he that loseth his life (in physical 
gratifications) for (the sake of developing his 
soul in my way) shall find (his life in the soul). 

"He that receiveth (your thoughts) receiveth 
(my thoughts); and he that receiveth (my 
thoughts) receiveth (the thoughts of) Him that 
sent me. He that receiveth a prophet ('s 
thoughts) in the name of a prophet shall re- 
ceive a prophet's reward (or development) and 
he that receiveth a righteous man ('s thoughts) in 
the name of a righteous man ('s thoughts) 
shall receive a righteous man's reward (or de- 
velopment). (You can acquire the ability to 
reason from cause to effect and upon the basis 
of what exists look into the future or can relate 
yourself justly and blamelessly with your fel- 
low-man according as you accept the thoughts 
and conceptions of the prophet or the righteous 
man. As you think so are you.) And whoso- 
ever shall give to drink unto one of these little 
ones (or those with but little growth) a cup of 
cold water only in the name of (one who is devel- 
oping his soul), verily I say unto you he shall 
in no wise lose his reward" (or growth). 

At one time Christ noticed the simple minds 
about him drinking in his words and fitting them 
to their lives without fully understanding, per- 
haps, what they had done. Filled with wonder 
at this evidence of God's methods and ways, he 
exclaimed, " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of 
Heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 135 

things from the wise and prudent and hast re- 
vealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so 
it seemed good in thy sight. All things are de- 
livered unto me of my Father (in fact, all that 
I am is due to God, who gave the growth of soul 
and guidance of the spirit) and no man knoweth 
the son (soul) but the Father; neither knoweth 
any man the Father save the son (the soul who 
communes with his spirit or God, and is growing 
in accord with the laws of his soul) and he to 
whomsoever the son (developed soul) will reveal 
him." (You must know God to picture him to 
another. ) 

Again, the hard and grinding toil of the 
lower classes, their burden of ignorance and lack 
of pleasure to brighten and color life, together 
with the self-inflicted burden of care and anxiety 
as well as work which was robbing the men who 
possessed some wealth and wanted more of all 
pleasures, thus incapacitating both for any 
higher, nobler life, wring from him these words: 
" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest (if you will but 
accept my view of life and work for gain in 
your soul). Take my yoke upon you and learn 
of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart (my 
material aspirations are second to those that are 
in the soul), and ye shall find rest unto your 
souls. For my yoke (work for physical needs) 
is easy, and my burden is light " (as I aim only 
to supply my physical wants). 



136 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

The Sabbath, which has been instituted as a 
day of rest so that man might have a respite 
from toil for his maintenance when self-preserva- 
tion was the first thought in the mind, was treated 
by Christ as any other day. Each day was em- 
ployed to develop his soul and the souls about 
him, and in this work the body was treated in 
the light of what could be got out of it for the 
soul in all its varied phases, both his own and 
his fellows. The body was capable of much 
greater service in its intended capacity than in 
the pursuits of animal life. In animal life, there 
was no respite for the body. It was used to 
prepare the wants and pleasures. It was used 
when enjoying them. In a normal life the en- 
joyment of soul life will bring rest and time for 
recuperation to the body. 

But his words did not convey to men the ideas 
which he desired. The kingdom of God was to 
them a realm in which the regulation of man 
was accomplished by a sovereign and Christ was 
asked when it would come. He replied, " The 
kingdom of God cometh not with observation; 
neither shall they say, Lo here, or Lo there, for, 
behold, the kingdom of God is within you." 
The laws of the kingdom are the laws of the soul. 

The attention of Christ was called to the dif- 
ferent ways in which men violated the laws of 
their being, and of the permanency of the effects 
upon the man. This was done by the churchmen 
about him — those best informed in the ways of 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 137 

life — declaring that he was using physical or 
mental forces to accomplish his wonders. He re- 
plied that this could not be, as force of one kind 
acting against a similar force could only over- 
come and neutralize it, and would have no power 
to restore a thing to its former condition. This 
must be accomplished by a power (God) which 
can administer other force which will accomplish 
the restoration. He used the only illustration 
then available to demonstrate this when he said, 
" Every kingdom divided against itself is 
brought to desolation, and every city or house 
divided against itself shall not stand, and if Sa- 
tan (physical force) cast out (physical force) 
he is divided against himself; how then shall his 
kingdom stand (or from whence will his power 
come if it is neutralized by overcoming itself)? 
If I by (physical force) cast out (physical ills) 
by (what power) do your children cast them out 
(and are healed) ? (If they are restored by other 
power than their own physical force) therefore 
they shall be your judges." (If God corrects 
their diseases he must also accomplish the same 
result for me.) 

" But if I cast out (physical evils) by the 
spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come 
unto you. Or else how can one enter into a 
strong man's house (the body), and spoil his 
goods (or destroy the diseases which physical 
force has created in the body) except he first bind 
the strong man (or neutralize that force) and then 



138 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

he will spoil his house (or remove the result of its 
work). He that is not with me is against me, 
and he that gathereth not with me scattereth 
abroad. (Or he that directs the force of his life 
or person for physical ends cannot at the same 
time cultivate his soul, and he that does not culti- 
vate and control his soul is cultivating habits 
which it will be difficult to bring under control, 
and the result will impede the growth of the de- 
velopment for which Christ stands.) 

He declared, " All manner of sin and blas- 
phemy (violation and condemnation of the laws 
of being) shall be (removed or) forgiven but the 
(violation or neglect of the power of conscious 
observation and control of the soul, if carried to 
the point of repudiation and denunciation, can- 
not be regained). And whosoever (goes so far 
as to) speaketh a word against the (soul) of man, 
it shall be forgiven him (the consequences may 
be removed and he may learn to prize his abili- 
ties), but whosoever (goes so far as to) speaketh 
against the Holy Ghost (helpful spirit or con- 
sciousness) it shall not be forgiven him (or the 
result shall not be overcome by him, as he has 
forever closed the avenue through which he gains 
control of and develops his soul as he would 
wish), neither in this world neither in the world 
to come. (This is simply an impossibility. 
If you refuse to* use the throttle to control an 
engine it is out of your control. If you refuse 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 139 

the only means of controlling your soul, you 
will never control it.) 

As will be noticed thus far in Christ's teach- 
ings, he has attempted to convey his thoughts by 
a direct expression of them in the language of 
his time. But he now has come to the time when 
he is convinced that he cannot open the minds 
of those about him in this way. It is the 
thoughts of their animal existence which have 
given rise to these words, and the deeper mean- 
ings of Christ are not conveyed to them by their 
use. He gives the reason for the change he now 
makes to short stories in illustration of his 
thoughts, thus : " I speak to them in parables 
because they seeing, see not, and hearing, they 
hear not, neither do they understand." The gen- 
eral discourse to the multitude did not permit a 
knowledge of the difficulties in their thought as 
the intimacy of discipleship did. The disciples' 
misunderstanding of his word could be corrected 
in private conversation, but not so the multitude. 
This he had now become fully aware of and used 
illustrations largely before them thereafter. 
These stories are too well known to need repeti- 
tion here. He tells how the seed thoughts or 
ideas scattered about are treated by different per- 
sons, some using them and being influenced in 
their development. Others considered them, but 
they are crowded out by other ideas. Some do 
not consider them at all. 



140 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

He speaks of the effect of good and of filthy 
thoughts, however small ; how these permeate the 
life and mould its character. These different 
characters or souls form the " kingdom of 
heaven " or the realm of soul which Christ came 
to save (or develop). 

The stories were from every-day occurrences 
in men's lives and opened the way into the mind 
as no other method could. To his disciples, how- 
ever, he was more open and direct, explaining the 
parables and adding direct statements of truth. 
He was conversing with them one day in regard 
to what people thought of him. When he asked 
them who they thought he was, Simon Peter an- 
swered him, " Thou art the Christ (the anointed 
or chosen), the son of the living God " (the one 
who has succeeded in allying his soul to his con- 
sciousness or God and making the latter su- 
preme). Christ replied, "Blessed art thou, Si- 
mon, Bar-jona, for flesh and blood have not re- 
vealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in 
heaven." (It is not the investigation of my con- 
duct by the senses which has brought this to you, 
but the workings of your consciousness in the soul 
which has caused you to recognize in me similar 
evidence of God's presence : a common ground be- 
tween us.) " And I say also unto thee that thou 
art Peter (a soul) and upon this rock (the soul) 
I will build my church (following) ; and the gates 
of hell (degradation, vileness, and death) shall 
not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 141 

the keys of the kingdom of heaven (the means or 
methods of entering the life in the soul) ; and 
whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound 
in heaven, and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth 
shall be loosed in heaven (or the habits you form 
shall crystallize and determine the scope of your 
future life, so that the powers you use and culti- 
vate here shall be yours to enjoy, but those al- 
lowed to slumber now shall be beyond your reach 
in the hereafter. You will not know of these 
latent possibilities by experience and your con- 
ception of life will not include them)." 

He was also well aware of the prejudices he 
had aroused and saw that death could not be long 
delayed when the fierce passions of men were 
awakened and sought to be freed of him. He 
was repeating some of his thoughts to his disci- 
ples, telling them that man must fulfill the re- 
quirements or make the effort for the develop- 
ment of soul if he was to receive it, and the phys- 
ical life must be made subservient to that of the 
soul or the soul would become subservient to the 
demands of the body, when he asked them this 
question : " For what is a man profited, if he 
shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? 
or what shall a man give in exchange for (pos- 
session of) his soul? " He went on to say, " For 
the son of man (physical man with a soul) shall 
come in the glory (power and abilities given him) 
of his Father with his angels (graces and beau- 
ties of character) ; and then he shall reward 



142 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

every man according to his works. (Every man 
then shall take the place and lines of activity 
which his life and character here have caused 
him to enjoy.) Verily, I say unto you, there 
be some standing here which shall not taste of 
death till they see the son of man coming in 
his kingdom (or see the soul of man throwing 
aside the domination of the body and living in the 
delights of its own activities)." 

Christ felt the coming storm keenly and was 
in need of encouragement, standing alone, un- 
derstood fully by none, his trials utterly unap- 
preciated by those about him, who often con- 
tributed to them by their words and conduct, 
with no sympathetic friend to commend, no ad- 
miration expressed at his achievements in the 
soul which was to him the " fatness of life." 

Those about him were untutored in his ways or 
were but beginning to see his idea of life. Christ 
indeed needed the support and emphatic approval 
of Him whose presence he recognized in every 
manifestation of force. The growth of human 
character had been strengthening for centuries 
the prejudices, opinions and ideas which underlay 
the life about him. He saw the handiwork of 
God in this. The characters which they had 
asked for in their way of life, sought and worked 
for, was theirs. But now he must meet this ac- 
cumulated growth of centuries. He knew tol- 
eration of him and his thoughts would not be 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 143 

possible. Death alone would satisfy these in- 
censed passions when once aroused. 

Like a beam of light into the black of mid- 
night came the expression of approval upon the 
mountain top where Christ with three of his dis- 
ciples had gone to be alone. In the excitement 
and pressure of his work, his mind was centered 
upon his environment, but now he has retired to 
take a look into the future and view in its correct 
light the crisis which was fast approaching. He 
knew the soul and that the only injury that could 
come to him was physical. His intimacy with his 
consciousness or God had made him aware of the 
fact that the soul would be given another instru- 
ment to convey to the perceptive faculty the 
laws or will or ideas of the Almighty expressed 
in force when this physique was gone. He was 
here made aware that his body would be made 
perceptive to the coarse senses of man for a short 
time after it had been separated from the soul. 
So firm was his faith in God that when this 
thought was placed in his mind he at once took 
it as we take the account of the past event told 
by a man in whom we have confidence. He who 
administered so faithfully the force of nature 
would not give the thought, if he did not mean 
to execute the deed. The demonstration of his 
power to do this in the presence of Moses and 
Elias made his faith a positive conviction. He 
was prepared now to meet the coming storm. 



144 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

He had approached this retirement a man bur- 
dened by the weight of a coming crisis; he left 
it assured of his future and with full confidence 
in the power on which he relied. Is it surpris- 
ing that his face shone? The barbarian often 
approaches torture with exaltation; the civilized 
man sees the consummation of his hopes with a 
beaming countenance; and why should not the 
Christ at this moment, when he finds himself rec- 
ognized by God as master of his soul, receive it 
with a shining face and an evidence of delight 
which he had every right to feel. 

From this time on he spoke of coming events 
with the same positive knowledge that men use 
to-day in speaking of events in the natural world 
which past experience had led them to expect, 
such as eclipses, meteors or the seasons. From 
this on he occupied himself in his teachings to 
clinching what he had said, and in admonishing 
his followers to give diligent attention to the 
development of the soul. There were few appli- 
cations of his views to life. One of these was 
upon the occasion of the wealthy young man 
when he asked what he must do to save his soul, 
and went away sorrowful when he was told that 
his wealth stood in the way. After he left, Christ 
continued: "Verily, I say unto you that a rich 
man shall hardly (it will be difficult for him to) 
enter into the (development of his soul). It is 
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a 
needle than for a rich man to enter into (the 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 145 

delights and pleasures of his soul)." His wealth 
will command his attention and occupy his 
thoughts to the exclusion of the needs of his soul 
and these considerations will have little chance to 
dominate the soul. 

But, asked his disciples, " Who then can be 
saved? " (for men are all dominated by the same 
thoughts and desires). He looked at them a mo- 
ment and then replied : " With men this is im- 
possible; but with God all things are possible." 
(God will accomplish the growth in man which 
will cause him to delight more in his develop- 
ment than in the administration of wealth and 
man will turn from it as much as possible.) 

The mother of Zebedee's sons called forth an- 
other expression from Christ upon the political 
methods of men. She wished places of distinc- 
tion for her two sons in the kingdom which to 
her mind must be a realm whose laws were admin- 
istered by men. This, Christ told her, he could 
not give. Distinction in the kingdom of the soul 
came from growth and will be given to those 
whom God has been able to accord growth and 
development. He then explained the change 
which must come in political affairs. " Ye 
know," said he, " that the princes of the Gentiles 
exercise dominion over them, and they that are 
great exercise authority upon them, but it shall 
not be so among you; but whosoever shall be 
great among you, let him be your minister; and 
whosoever shall be chief among you, let him 



146 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

be your servant, even as the son of man (man 
with a soul or spirit) came not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom 
for many" (or give his life to the awakening of 
possibilities in the souls of many). 

" The son of man " was a common phrase of 
Christ in reference to himself, and he apparently 
wished to call attention to the fact that what dis- 
tinguished him from other men was his difference 
in soul. This was the seat of personality and in- 
dividuality. This soul was the real Christ. 

He was approaching Jerusalem to attend the 
eventful Passover, when the hate and fury of the 
priests and populace would do their worst. As 
he approached the city with his disciples one 
morning he evinced his control of the forces of 
nature by causing a fig tree to wither because it 
did not bear fruit. The surprise of his disciples 
was answered by him in declaring a fact that we 
have in the past century but partly learned, 
" Verily I say unto you, if ye have faith (in the 
force of nature or God) and doubt not ye shall 
not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but 
also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou 
removed and be thou cast into the sea ( or be as if 
it were on a level by filling the holes or difficult 
places), it shall be done (and how effectually this 
has been done by man's pitting natural forces 
against the difficulties, and now they are smooth 
and level ways). And all things whatsoever ye 
shall ask in prayer (earnestly asking both by de- 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 147 

siring and asking for) believing, ye shall receive." 
(And who is it that gains success that does not 
work earnestly, believing that he shall accomplish 
that for which he strives?) 

There are two of the parables of Christ spoken 
in these last days which give his view of the 
physical life and life in the soul. The first of 
these has to do with the physical life. 

There was "a householder (God) which went 
out early in the morning to hire laborers into his 
vineyard. And when he had agreed with the la- 
bourers for a penny a day (a mere living) he sent 
them into his vineyard. And he went out about 
the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the 
market place, and he said unto them : Go ye also 
into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will 
give yoir; and they went their way. Again he 
went out about the sixth or ninth hour, and did 
likewise ; and about the eleventh hour he went out 
and found others standing idle and saith to them, 
Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say 
unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He 
saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard ; and 
whatsoever is right that shall ye receive. So when 
the eve was come the Lord of the vineyard saith 
unto his steward, Call the laborers and give them 
their hire, beginning with the last unto the first. 
And when they came that were hired about the 
eleventh hour, they received every man a penny 
(mere existence). But when the first came they 
supposed that they should have received more ; and 



148 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

they likewise received every man a penny (mere 
existence). And when they had received it (mere 
existence) they murmured against the good man 
of the house, saying, These last have wrought but 
one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto 
us which have born the burden and heat of the 
day. But he answered one of them and said, 
Friend, I do thee no wrong ; didst not thou agree 
with me for a penny (mere existence)? Take 
that thine is, and go thy way ; I will give unto this 
last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to 
do that I will with my own? Is thine eye evil be- 
cause I am good? So the last shall be first, and 
the first last ; for many be called, but few chosen." 

The world is the vineyard of God ; man is here 
to work in it; existence is his only pay for his 
work. He may work all his time for this or as 
small a fraction as he chooses, but when the end 
comes he will but receive existence for his pay. 
Many are called from the work of existence to the 
development of the soul, but few spend the 
greater time in the work. Those that do spend 
their time in the work, and come afterwards to 
seek their material wants, are always ahead of 
those who seek their material wants for the needs 
of their body, ahead in the sense that they are 
much better compensated for their work. They 
have existence and the development secured. 

Some time after giving this, he illustrated the 
other side by a parable in which he pictured the 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 149 

benefits received by those who seek their soul's 
welfare first and then their animal needs. 

It is " as a man traveling into a far country, 
who called his own servants and delivered unto 
them his goods ; and unto one he gave five talents, 
to another two, and to another one ; to every man 
according to his several ability ; and straight- 
way took his journey. Then he that had re- 
ceived the five talents went and traded with the 
same (used them) and made them other five tal- 
ents." The man with two did the same. But one 
was afraid, so he dug in the ground and hid the 
talent. It is unnecessary to give the balance of 
this parable, for we are all familiar with it. 

The talents were the possibilities of the soul. 
He who put them to use was rewarded not only 
by the growth of the ability he possessed, but 
these led the way to the awakening of other pos- 
sibilities of which he was not at first aware. Thus 
his former number was increased and he soon had 
doubled the avenues through which he could serve 
his fellows and find delight for himself. At the 
close of life, when the instrument was worn out 
and laid aside, he found that he had acquired the 
power and habits of self -conquest, and that, al- 
though he had secured lordship over himself but 
in a few ways, he could acquire lordship over him- 
self in many and enter more and more into the 
joy which God ever gives to a master of self in 
any line. 



150 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

But the man who fails to use the possibilities 
of his soul, and works only for existence, " digs 
in the ground." When he comes to the end of 
life, and the instrument for which he has worked 
is worn out and laid aside, he will have lost all 
ability to use the faculties and powers of soul. 
He will find that they have been taken from him 
as the strength is taken from an idle arm. For 
to him that hath and uses his possessions shall 
be given abundance, but from him that has not 
used his ability, however small, shall be taken 
that which at first had been his if awakened and 
used. No delight shall be his in the company 
of his developed brother. He shall be cast out 
of their midst because of the law of affinity that 
kind seeks kind. 

The end was now approaching. He had lived 
fully in accord with the laws of God, and was 
now about to brave the consequences. He was 
seated one day with his disciples upon the Mount 
of Olives, when one of them asked him when the 
law he declared would be established and men be 
happy by the burdens of life being lightened. 
Christ's answer was an account of the struggle 
which truth always has in displacing error and 
falsehood in the soul of man, which occasions the 
changes in existing customs and institutions. 

He warned them first against religious leaders 
who put up the claim of messiahship. You shall 
hear of strife, he said, disputes and wars. Na- 
tions shall settle their difficulties, as in the past, 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 151 

by making war against the nation with whom 
they have a controversy. Famines, pestilences 
and riots (social earthquakes) shall occur in 
places, for there shall be nothing done to prevent 
them for some time to come. " All these are the 
beginning of sorrows." Then they will begin to 
take notice of you, and your way of life shall 
demand a change. They will deliver you up to 
be afflicted, and shall kill you and you shall be 
hated of all nations because of the life I taught 
you. And then shall many be offended and turn 
against you for bringing this general condem- 
nation upon them and shall betray you. Teach- 
ers of falsehood shall arise who will attempt to 
defend existing conditions and deceive many. 
And on account of the popularity of these men 
the followers of the life I teach will be few. 

But the truth which I teach will be declared 
throughout the whole world; then shall the end 
begin to come. When you see the people no 
longer able to receive comfort, hope and guid- 
ance from the places they have looked upon as 
holy and sacred, when " abomination of desola- 
tion stands in the holy place," then let all for- 
sake their possessions of natural things and enter 
the higher and nobler activities of the soul. Let 
them cling to nothing that is simply material, 
and woe to them that are bound to and have 
hopes in material things. For then there shall 
be great problems, vast difficulties and unparall- 
eled questions, such as were not since the begin- 



152 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

ning of the world to this time ; no, nor ever shall 
be. And except those days shall be shortened, 
there shall no flesh be saved (developed); but 
for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. 

But he again asserts that a man who claims 
messianic power should be shunned. The won- 
der worker and the man of secret power are not 
to be followed, " for wheresoever the carcass is 
(profit is to be made), there will the eagles be 
gathered together." 

When these difficulties have come, the future 
will not be understood by men, " the sun," or the 
institution to which men have looked for the 
greatest light on the questions of life, " shall be 
darkened, 55 and will not be able to foretell the 
result. The moon or lesser source of infor- 
mation will not assist them, and the stars, or nu- 
merous leaders of the people, will be unable to 
direct them; and powers which have governed 
the souls of men will be shaken off and will slowly 
lose their hold upon them. 

Then shall appear the sign of the (man with a 
soul), and all the earth will mourn their loss 
and they shall see the development of the soul of 
man coming in the trend of events with " power 
and great glory " — all men shall feel this awak- 
ening and depend on their own experiences in 
soul for guidance. A feeling of kinship and 
unity shall go forth and gather the elect from 
the four heavens and from every quarter of the 



CHRIST'S YEARS OF WORK 153 

world. When ye see all these things, then know 
that the end is near, even at the doors. 

Indeed, he assured them that a generation 
would not pass away until all these things had 
come to pass. For every reform must go 
through these stages to gain ascendancy with 
man, and while true with each minor improve- 
ment, it will also be true of the time when man 
will throw aside material things to develop his 
soul. 



CHAPTER XII 
JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 

The narrative of the first three Gospels, whicli 
we have just studied, has been merely a chronol- 
ogy of the life, doings and sayings of Christ; 
but the Gospel of St. John approaches the life of 
Jesus from a different standpoint. John views 
the life more from the outlook of an inquisitive 
mind that would know the reasons, the results and 
the details. We have noted that he prefaced his 
account by a short review of the development of 
man, and gives Christ the position of bringing to 
man light upon the subject of life, so that he may 
live it in accord with the will or laws of God 
expressed in the world and his soul. 

Now naturally follows the conversations be- 
tween Christ and Nicodemus, " Except a man 
be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of 
God." You must awaken to a conscious reali- 
zation of the power of your soul or you cannot 
see and understand and use the laws of the " king- 
dom." But this thought in the words of mere 
physical processes with which he was familiar, 
found no lodgment in the mind of Nicodemus. 
" How can a man be born when he is old? Can 
he enter the second time into his mother's womb, 
and be born? " But Christ replied, " Except a 

154 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 155 

man be born of the water and the spirit, he can- 
not enter into the kingdom of God." 

A man must rise to a conscientious knowledge 
and control of his soul, and erase the evil which 
ignorance and folly have produced there, before 
he can enter into the enjoyment possible by 
obedience to the laws of life. Your soul acts 
upon the considerations which are presented to 
it and " that which is born of the flesh is flesh ; 
and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. 
Marvel not that I say unto thee, ye must be born 
again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not 
tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is 
every one who is born of the spirit." 

You may know the cause for the wind in the 
varying temperature of different localities. You 
can understand its many manifestations, but you 
cannot tell the first slight movement nor the 
final disturbances of the atmosphere, for these are 
not perceptible to our unaided senses. So it is 
with the dawn of our conscious control of the 
soul. We become suddenly aware of our true 
condition, but we do not know when the first small 
action opened the way for us to take this step 
toward self-examination and mastery. 

How little of this was intelligible to Nico- 
demus is shown by his surprise and incredulity. 
But Christ could only assure him that he knew 
what he said was true, " We speak that we do 
know and testify that we have seen, and ye re- 



156 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

ceive not our witness." We tell you of the pro>- 
cesses of our soul, we know and perceive it within 
ourselves, but you do not accredit our word. 
Now if I have told you of things which the phys- 
ical world demonstrates and you do not believe 
them, how can you believe if I tell you of things 
which are only known in the soul, which is con- 
scious of its own actions. 

No man can physically enter the soul, but he 
must enter this realm of his being through his 
spirit or consciousness, which is his highest pre- 
rogative, and by this consciousness slowly enter 
into possession or control of his soul. It is the 
conquest of the lower by the higher. A man who 
has the power of self-examination and self-con- 
trol alone can enter into the enjoyment of the 
soul. 

" And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
wilderness, even so must the son (soul) of man be 
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish but have eternal life." As the ser- 
pent of Moses was made prominent and con- 
spicuous before the people, so must the soul of 
man be made prominent and conspicuous before 
man as the seat and source of all that is desirable 
and valuable in life. Thus as man knows more 
of the soul and its work, its pleasures and de- 
lights, he will value them more and more and seek 
life in the soul which is eternal, rather than in 
the sensations of the body which is laid aside at 
death. 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 157 

" For God so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten son (only developed soul) that 
whosoever believeth in him (and his development) 
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For 
God sent not his son (developed soul) into the 
world to condemn the world, but that the world 
through him might be saved" (and in full pos- 
session of this soul find contentment and joy). 

" He that believeth on him (and avails himself 
of his knowledge to possess his soul) is not con- 
demned (by the workings of the law of his be- 
ing) ; but he that believeth not is condemned al- 
ready because he hath not believed in (the work- 
ings of his soul as shown by) name of the only 
begotten son of God. And this is the condemna- 
tion, that light (knowledge of truth) is come into 
the world and men loved darkness (ignorance in 
regard to themselves) rather than light, because 
their deeds are evil (physical but the truth would 
compel them to change their habits, customs and 
institutions). For every one that doeth evil 
(mere animal beings) hateth the light, neither 
cometh to the light lest (should they accept the 
truth it would condemn their own conduct and) 
his deeds should be ( discovered in their true effect 
upon the soul and) reproved. But he that doeth 
truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be 
made manifest, that they are wrought in God 
(who ministers the laws which he has learned to 
understand and follow). 

When John the Baptist was asked why Christ, 



158 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

whom he had announced, was gaining so much 
more of a following than he had, he replied that 
it was because Christ had greater possession of 
his soul. " A man," said he, " can receive noth- 
ing, except it be given him from heaven (in con- 
forming to the laws of his being. I told you that 
I was but preceding him.) He that hath the 
bride (conscious possession of the soul) is the 
bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, 
which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly 
because of the bridegroom's voice (which makes 
known the joy which his possession affords him) ; 
this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must in- 
crease, but I decrease. He that cometh from 
above (develops by controlling his soul) is above 
all (material things). He that is of the earth is 
earthly (or he who is occupied by earthly things, 
lives only in them ) and speaketh of the earth ; he 
that cometh from heaven (or learns to live in the 
processes, possessions and pleasures of the soul) is 
above all (these things, and earth and her pos- 
sessions are only in his thoughts as means of 
building larger and grander the soul which he 
prizes). 

" And what he hath seen and heard, that he 
testifieth, and no (mere physical) man receiveth 
his testimony. He that receiveth his testimony 
(and is learning to prize and possess his soul) 
hath set to his seal that God is true (or is fast 
demonstrating that God is true). For he whom 
God hath sent (and leads into the full possession 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 159 

of his soul) speaketh the words (or truths) of 
God; for God giveth not his Spirit by measure 
(but permits a full conscious possession of the 
soul when it is sought). The Father loveth the 
Son (soul) and hath given all things into his 
hand. He that believeth on the (developed soul) 
son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth 
not the (developed soul) son shall not see life 
(as existence only shall be his), but the wrath of 
God abideth on him (in the discontent, insuf- 
ficiency and misery which the broken laws of his 
being will cause.) 

" If thou kneweth the gift of God (in giving 
to man the possession of his soul)" said Christ to 
the woman of Samaria, " and who it is that saith 
to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have 
asked of him, and he would have given thee living 
water. Whosoever drinketh of this water (from 
this well) shall thirst again, but whosoever drink- 
eth of the water that I shall give him (by teach- 
ing him to remove the blight from his soul and 
cause it to grow) shall never thirst, but the water 
(consciousness which gives a knowledge of the 
laws of development) that I shall give him shall 
be in him a well of water springing up into ever- 
lasting life (as he is made aware of new laws and 
new possibilities of his being by experience in his 
soul)." 

The controversy which had existed so long as 
to the place in which God is to be worshipped 
jnust end. " Ye worship ye know not what. We 



160 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

know what we worship, for salvation (and devel- 
opment of soul) is of the Jews (now). But 
the hour cometh and now is when the true wor- 
shippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in 
truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship 
him. God is a spirit and they that worship him 
must worship him in spirit and in truth." Mere 
physical regulations and observances are not wor- 
ship of God, but a knowledge and use of his laws 
is. Christ's soul was thoroughly awakened as 
he spoke, and he had risen above the cravings of 
his body, which were unheeded because of the 
absorbing thoughts which welled up for utter- 
ance. His disciples came to him, saying : " Mas- 
ter, eat," but he turned it away with the words, 
" I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My 
meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to 
finish his work." The purpose of his life per- 
mitted nothing to stand in the way of an oppor- 
tunity. His body was the means, not the end. 
The performance of duty or filling the oppor- 
tunity was the meat with which he fed the soul. 

Man can only use those powers which are de- 
veloped to some extent so that he recognizes that 
he possesses them. " My Father worketh hith- 
erto," said Christ, " and I work. The son (soul) 
can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the 
Father do (or what he perceives is done in awak- 
ening and giving growth to faculties and powers 
of his being) ; for what things so ever he (God) 
doeth these also doeth the soul likewise (as God 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 161 

must give evidence of the power before man knows 
of its existence). For the Father loveth the soul 
and showeth him all things that himself doeth, 
and he will show him greater things than these 
that he may marvel." 

" For as the Father raiseth up the dead (and 
latent soul) and quickeneth them, even so the (de- 
veloped soul) son quickeneth whom he will (and 
arouses those about him to a realization of the 
pleasures and rewards of a life which is lived in 
the soul and which begins the subtle process 
which in time adds new possessions to souls about 
him). For the Father judgeth no man (nor 
determines what the results of life shall be) but 
hath committed all judgment unto the son (soul, 
and it alone can decide as to what his existence 
will result in) that all should honor (the soul) 
even as they honor the Father. He that honor- 
eth not (the soul) honor eth not the Father which 
hath sent him. 

" He that heareth my words and believeth on 
him that sent me (does so because he knows some- 
what of his own nature by following her laws) 
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into 
condemnation (and pay the penalty of broken 
laws) but is passed from death unto life. (The 
soul will contain for him in the future the joys 
and values of life; the sensations of the body 
are dead to him as pleasures, and are useful only 
in maintaining its health and strength. ) 

" The hour is coming and now is when the 



162 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

dead (souls) shall hear the voice of the son of 
God (developed soul) and they that hear shall 
live (and the former pleasures of mere existence 
shall lose their charm). For as the Father hath 
life in himself; so hath he given to (the developed 
soul) to have life in himself (and made him, so 
that he may be fully conscious of every act and 
the results, that by watching his growth he may 
be aware of his true condition and occupy his 
life in the formation of character). And hath 
given him authority to execute judgment also, be- 
cause he is the son of man (and as a physical be- 
ing is able to ascertain the laws of the universe, 
thus knowing fully the ideas, purposes and will 
of God in his material creation upon which to 
base his conclusions. He is therefore capable of 
passing judgment on himself). 

" Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in 
the which all that are in their graves (of material 
pleasures and pursuits) shall hear his voice (in 
the more desirable fruits of life when lived in the 
soul), and shall come forth; they that have done 
good (in their material pursuits and thus uncon- 
sciously developed their souls in accordance with 
the laws of God) unto the resurrection of life 
(when the truth shall come to them as a bright 
morning bringing joy and happiness) and they 
that have done evil (and have known life only 
in the gratification of the senses) unto the resur- 
rection of damnation (as they realize that there 
remains for them only the animal propensities, 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 163 

desire for material things, and the longing im- 
planted in every heart for contentment and hap- 
piness in the results of life's works which they do 
not possess). 

" I can of my own self do nothing ; as I hear 
I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek 
not mine own will but the will of the Father 
which hath sent me, (When man judges or cal- 
culates upon his experience with the laws of the 
natural world his judgment is taken as good and 
reliable. Should not the judgment of a man 
based on his experience with the laws of the soul 
of man be equally just, if not biased by personal 
consideration? He can do nothing but pass 
upon what he conceives from the five senses, and 
he declares the results. He cannot create them.) 

" Ye seek me," said Christ to the multitude, 
" because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. 
Labor not for the meat that perisheth but for 
that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, 
which the (soul) of man shall give unto you, for 
him hath God, the Father sealed (or chosen and 
will reward this labor in the soul with peace and 
contentment for which your natures crave). 
This is the work of God, that ye believe on him 
(the soul) whom he hath sent." 

The multitude could not see through this, and 
put the question bluntly : " What dost thou 
work? Our fathers did eat manna in the des- 
ert as it is written, He gave them bread from 
heaven to eat." (If you will supply our phys- 



164 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

ical wants in some such way as this we might 
then engage in other work. Christ saw that they 
did not grasp the distinction he wished to draw 
between the material or actions which maintained 
and gave growth to the body, and the material 
or actions which maintained and gave growth to 
the soul.) " Moses," he replied, " gave you not 
that bread from heaven (it was simply a mani- 
festation of force which satisfied the demands of 
the physique). But my Father giveth you the 
same true bread from heaven " (which will 
quicken the soul and give it growth and develop- 
ment). 

" For the bread of God is he which cometh down 
from heaven and giveth life unto the world." 
(This alone will awaken and develop the facul- 
ties, disposition and capabilities of a man. It is 
he who has grown and is enjoying the activities 
of his nobler nature that can enter into the life 
of his fellows and by precept, example and word 
lead them to the use and development of theirs. 
As material bread comes only from the hand of 
him who has wrought in material things, so the 
bread of intellectual and spiritual growth comes 
only from him who has wrought in the soul. ) 

" I am the bread of life ; he that cometh to 
me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me 
shall never thirst." (Christ had mastered his 
soul and could lead others to a mastery of theirs, 
and could assure them that the conditions of his 
own soul would be the results of their accepting 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 165 

his way of life. ) But said Christ, u Ye have 
seen me and believe not." 

"All that the Father giveth (the power to 
follow) me shall come to me, and him that com- 
eth to me I will in no wise cast out (but shall en- 
deavor to lead him into all the possessions of soul 
that it is possible for me to do). For I came 
down from Heaven (or the enjoyment of my own 
development) not to do mine own will, but the 
will of Him that sent me. And this is the Fath- 
er's will which hath sent me, that of all (the pow- 
ers, abilities and graces of soul) which he hath 
given me I should lose nothing, but should raise 
it up again at the last day (and be fully possessed 
of it in the life to come). And this is the will of 
Him that sent me (also), that every one which 
seeth the (developed soul) and believeth on him 
(and strives to gain life in the soul) may have 
everlasting life, and I (by the life I shall lead 
and its influence upon man so as to make the 
truth known to him) will raise him up at the last 
day (and he will enter life in the future in the 
enjoyment of a conscious possession of his 
soul)." 

The people, however, took offense at his anal- 
ogy. How could he be the bread which would 
give to them growth and everlasting life? Christ 
replied by reiterating his statements, and again 
showed the tantalizing insufficiency of the lan- 
guage of his times, as well as the lack of develop- 
ment on the part of those around him, by making 



166 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

still further use of the analogy which had created 
doubt and incredulity in the minds of his audi- 
ence. 

" I am the living bread," he said, " which came 
down from (the happy condition which I have 
attained). If any man eat of this bread (by ac- 
cepting my service to teach him of the life which 
I live) he shall live forever and the bread that I 
shall give is (the service) of my flesh, which I 
will give for the life of the world." This seemed 
to confirm the doubts already existing in the 
minds of the Jews. " How can this man give us 
his flesh to eat ? " 

Then Jesus said unto them, " Verily, verily, I 
say unto you, except ye eat (or partake of) the 
flesh (in the service) of the son of man (Christ) 
and drink (or imbibe) his blood (or means of 
growth) ye have no life in you." (You must ap- 
proach the development of Christ and study it, 
and then lay hold of your consciousness or God, 
and by the processes of growth in the soul possess 
this kingdom quite as the child learns to use its 
body.) 

" Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
blood (or accepts my work in showing the way of 
life and lays hold of his consciousness, which is 
the means of growth in the soul) hath eternal life, 
and I will (have raised) him up at the last day 
(so that material things are no longer important, 
except as means of enjoying the fruits of the 
soul which are above and beyond them.) For 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 167 

my flesh (services) is meat indeed and my blood 
(consciousness) is drink indeed. He that eateth 
my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and 
I in him." Yes, he that studies his ways and 
follows them will live in the same thoughts, hopes 
and aspirations, the atmosphere surrounding the 
lives of both will be the same. " As the living 
Father has sent me, and I live by the Father ( fol- 
lowing his thoughts, ideas and purposes as I 
have learned to follow his laws), so he that eat- 
eth me, even he shall live by me. This is that 
bread which came down from heaven. 
It is the spirit ( or consciousness ) that quickeneth, 
the flesh profiteth nothing (nor gives any 
growth) ; the words I speak unto you are (of the) 
spirit and are life (in the soul).' 5 

Christ approached the subject of life in an- 
other way, which led to a running discussion cov- 
ering a wide range of thought. " I am the light 
of the world," said he. " He that followeth me 
shall not walk in darkness (nor be ignorant of 
the true issue of this life), but shall have the 
light of life (and understand its purposes)." 
Those about Christ said, Look here, you're talk- 
ing about yourself and what you say is not true. 
Christ admits that he is speaking of himself, 
but declares that what he says is true. Also that 
he alone with his God knows the history of his 
life and growth, and that he can therefore tell 
what his future will be, basing his conclusions 
on the past. You judge alone from what you 



168 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

see with the physical eye, but I judge from my 
knowledge of the laws and processes of God in 
the development of soul. You see the act, but I 
see the condition of the soul which gave rise to 
the act. 

" It is also written in your law," said he, " that 
the testimony of two men is true. I am one that 
bears witness of myself and the Father that sent 
me beareth witness of me (for you have but to 
examine the laws of your own soul to secure his 
testimony). If ye had known me (in the life I 
am leading) ye should have known my Father also 
(for it is he who has administered the laws and 
accomplished all truth in your soul as well as in 
mine). 

" When you have lifted up the soul of man 
(and begin to seek and value life in the soul), 
then shall ye know that I am (or that I have 
lived) and that I do nothing of myself, but as 
my Father hath taught me (I speak these 
things). And he that sent me is with me; the 
Father hath not left me alone, for I do always 
those things that please him. 

" If you continue in my word (and investi- 
gate to know their full meaning), then are ye my 
disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and 
the truth shall make you free." His statements, 
however, did not convey his meaning to those 
about him. We have never been in bondage. 
How can you free us? His reply was that 
" Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 169 

sin n and the misery, squalor, discontent of earth 
are the tribute we pay to our master, from whose 
bondage the knowledge of the truth alone can 
free us. 

" The servant abideth not in the house for- 
ever, but the son (soul) abideth ever. If the son 
(soul) therefore shall make you free ye shall be 
free indeed." Sin is primarily an error in the 
conclusion of the soul. If therefore, you can 
correct the error at its source and establish truth 
in the soul, your freedom from the consequences 
of error is assured. He went on to tell them 
that he spoke of his own experiences in his life 
as they spoke of the experiences of their life. 
You claim God as your Father and Abraham 
also, but if they were the source of your devel- 
opment you would do their deeds and love me who 
have followed God's laws and declare them. But 
you do not understand me because you cannot 
conceive of the life I lead. " Ye are of your 
Father the Devil (who is he that recognized ma- 
terial considerations only?) and the lusts of your 
Father you will do; he was a murderer from the 
beginning, and abode not in the truth, because 
there was no truth in him. When he speaketh 
a lie he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and 
the father of it." The giving away to the de- 
mands of the body to the blight of the soul forms 
in life the lie of all lies. 

Christ then called on them to support him. 
" Which of you convinceth me (of error) ? And 



170 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

if I say the truth why do you not believe me? " 
And then, as if in explanation, he stated that he 
alone that has grown in soul so that he recog- 
nizes God's laws in his soul can understand the 
statements of him who is versed in these laws. 

The multitude, however, laughed at him, and 
asked him if he did not possess a devil or was 
crazy. He replied that he was not crazy or un- 
balanced, but has honored his Father, God, by the 
life he was leading. " If a man keep my say- 
ings, he shall never see death," but the life to 
come will be as the present life with another in- 
strument, that will not be laid aside, in the place 
of the body. The look upon life, the valuable 
things of life, the hopes of life, if centered in 
the soul, will not change, but will suit the life to 
come as it has filled the life here. 

Now we know you are crazy, exclaimed the 
crowd; Abraham is dead and the prophets; 
" whom makest thou thyself? " Jesus answered, 
" If I honor myself, my honor is nothing ; it is 
my Father that honoreth me," and what I am 
is due to the growth he has accorded me. You 
call God your Father, yet you do not know him ; 
but I do, and keep his laws as I have learned them 
in my own and other souls. " Your Father 
Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it 
and was glad." 

The Jews, astonished at this statement, ex- 
claimed, What! You who are less than fifty 
years old, have you seen Abraham? Christ's 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 171 

laconic reply closed the dialogue : " Before 
Abraham was I am." 

Christ looked out on the phenomena of the 
universe, and into the lives of his fellowmen, and 
beheld there the revelation of his short reply. He 
seems to say, I know God " I am " (Ex. iii. 14) as 
he expresses himself in my life and in the lives of 
those about me, and therefore I know Abraham, 
for God does not change. The circumstances and 
thoughts in the life of Abraham will have the same 
effect as on man of like character to-day, for the 
expression of God in existence was before Abra- 
ham. We of to-day can appreciate this as we 
read such works as " Ben-Hur," which pictures 
the past from a knowledge of how man meets like 
circumstances in the present. 

Christ compared his leadership to that of the 
shepherd. Those who hear his word and per- 
ceive the truths that he tells will follow him quite 
as the sheep hear the well known voice of their 
leader and follow him. But the stranger they 
will not follow. " I am the door of the sheep," 
he went on to say, " If any man enter in " (to 
possession of his soul by my method of gaining 
control of it, he shall be saved from loss of it), 
" and shall go in and out and find pasture " (or 
food for growth both within* his* own nature 
and in the world about him). " I am the good 
Shepherd and know my sheep and am known of 
mine." Christ further states that he under- 
stands God fully and has tasted of the joys found 



172 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

in following his laws of life, yet had laid down 
these joys for the benefit of his followers. These 
followers will come from every circumstance of 
life, but shall recognize their kindredship of 
hope, purpose and end, and form one fold and 
recognize one leader. 

He speaks further of the joys he had laid 
aside to become a leader of men away from an- 
imal existence to life in the soul, which he expects 
to take up again when he has a accomplished his 
purpose. " No man taketh it from me," said he, 
" but I lay it down of myself. I have power to 
lay it down and I have power to take it again " 
( for I have lost none of my abilities by foregoing 
the pleasure I receive from exercising them). 

At the raising of Lazarus, Christ said to 
Martha, " I am the resurrection and the life ; he 
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet 
shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth 
in me shall never die." (In my own life I have 
accomplished a growth, a life of reality, peace 
and joy in the soul, which any one may secure 
who will follow my way of life. Life amid the 
abilities, powers and graces of the soul shall sur- 
vive the destruction of this house of clay and be 
your crown of precious jewels in the life that 
will then be. To such there is no death.) 

This is nothing unusual in the natural world 
about us, and Christ calls attention to the fact 
that the development of material things is se- 
cured by decay or consumption of one as it 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 173 

brings into existence another. " Except a corn 
of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth 
alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. 
He that loveth his (physical) life shall lose it; 
and he that hateth his life in this world shall 
keep it unto life eternal" (and accomplish as he 
uses it a growth into a fuller, nobler life of the 
soul). 

" And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto me." This would seem to be 
best stated in the thought of our time if it had 
been written: "And I, if I be (advertised) will 
draw all men unto me." How wide an application 
has this truth had to human history. Persecu- 
tion and calamity, censure and criticism, have 
been the best mediums for the widest diffusion of 
the knowledge of truth that the world has ever 
known. Christ's death as a criminal upon the 
cross has been the most potent appeal that the 
Church bearing his name has made to man since 
that time. His truth has found lodgment in 
many places were persecutions have opened the 
hearts of the masses by awakening their sympa- 
thies. The trials of the missionaries in Asia to- 
day are looked upon as opening the way to 
larger work, while the rapid spread of the Mor- 
mon faith in this country had its beginning in 
the murder of a few of its earliest followers. 

The disciples were sitting about him at the last 
Supper when Christ gave them this command- 
ment : " That ye love one another, as I have 



174 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

loved you. By this shall all know that ye are 
my disciples, if ye have love one to another." 
He went on to speak of life to them. " Let not 
your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, be- 
lieve also in me. In my father's house (the soul) 
are many mansions (or possible possessions) ; if 
not, I would have told you. I go to prepare 
(or leave) a place for you. And if I go and 
prepare (or leave) a place for you, I (or my 
development of soul) will come again, and re- 
ceive you unto myself (or itself) that where I 
am (my life is lived, or God's laws followed) ye 
may be also. And whither I go, ye know, and 
the way ye know, (for) I am the way, the truth 
and the life." No man can enter into possession 
of his soul or come to use God's laws except by 
this way of self conquest, for Christ lived in the 
Father's laws ; and God was in Christ in his con- 
sciousness so that Christ could declare, " The 
words that I speak unto you, I speak not of my- 
self, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth 
the works." 

" And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that 
will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the 
son " (soul). He here would seem to say, What- 
soever you may desire in the line of what I repre- 
sent, namely, possession and growth of soul, ask 
for it by the methods in which it can come to you ; 
if for knowledge, by seeking it; if for power 
of soul, by attempting to cultivate it ; if for con- 
trol over the forces of nature, by seeking to ad L 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 175 

minister them, and my way of accomplishing 
these things will bring it to pass, " that the 
Father will be glorified in the (soul) son," (for 
in this soul is the hope of creation). 

Although I am about to leave you, " I will 
pray the Father" that another comforter come; 
" even the spirit of truth. Ye know him for he 
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Your 
religious life heretofore has not made you aware 
of your consciousness, but you will recognize 
it now and life, such as I have lived, will come 
to you in full measure. It is he that keepeth 
my commandments, and that loveth my ways, that 
shall understand my life. For God will love him, 
and the growth God is willing to accord to him, 
together with the truths I bring to him, will abide 
with him and do their work. But your con- 
sciousness, which the Father will give to you 
now that you can receive it, " shall teach you all 
things, and bring all things to your remembrance 
whatsoever I have said unto you." 

"I am (my soul is) the true vine and my 
Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me 
(my soul) that beareth not fruit he taketh away, 
and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth 
it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you 
are clean (or the former error in your look upon 
life is removed) through the word which I have 
spoken unto you. Abide in me (and live in the 
thoughts, hopes and purposes I have given you) 
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of 



176 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye 
except ye abide in me. (In our relationship to 
each other) I am the vine, ye are the branches. 
He that abideth in me and I in him, the same 
bringeth forth much fruit (for I can lead him 
farther over the road I have come than he can go 
alone), for without me ye can do nothing (in the 
development of which you know so little). These 
things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might 
remain in you and your joy might be full. 
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man 
lay down (the joy of) his life for his friend" 
(and employ his life to bring him the happiness he 
had himself found). 

Christ was aware that he occupied a place in 
the life of his disciples which their consciousness 
should have and that his leaving them would com- 
pel them to use their consciousness. He has 
spoken of this before, but he again said to them : 
" I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that 
I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter 
will not come unto you; but if I depart I will 
send him unto you" (or my life, thoughts, will 
bring him to you). He went on to say that an 
appeal to this consciousness would convince 
them of truth in matters relative to sin, right- 
eousness and judgment and that it would guide 
them into all truth, for he shall not speak of 
himself; but will show you things to come. It 
is what the spirit of man sees and hears of the 
workings of the soul that it makes known to the 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 177 

perceptive faculty, and if the soul will treasure 
this information it will be aware of events to 
come, the condition of souls about it and their 
environments. This, in fact, is the basis of all 
accurate future calculation. 

" He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of 
mine (my development as expressed in my life) 
and shall show it unto you. (This is true of the 
life of every one we come in contact with.) A 
little while and ye shall see me (my development), 
and again a little while ye shall not see me (my 
development) because I go unto my Father (and 
give you an opportunity for independent de- 
velopment). Verily, verily, I say unto you that 
ye shall weep, and lament, but the world (ma- 
terialism) shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, 
but your sorrow shall be turned into joy 5 ' (as 
you gain possession of your souls). 

" A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, 
but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she 
remembereth no more the anguish for joy that 
a man is born into the world. And ye now 
therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, 
and your hearts shall rejoice and your joy no 
man taketh from you " (as it is only possible for 
you to destroy it yourself). 

The prayer with which John closes the teach- 
ings of Christ before his betrayal gives the back- 
ward look of Christ upon the life he has just 
finished and expresses the thought that came to 
him at the close of that period of his life in 



178 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

which the existing conditions of the souls of man 
or the influence of the world has been a factor. 

" Father, the hour is come, glorify (or express 
the worth of) thy son, that thy son also may 
glorify thee (and make known thy worth), as 
thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he 
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast 
given him (and who have followed his way of 
life in the development of soul). And this is 
eternal life, that they might know thee, the only 
true God (who expresses himself in the natural 
world, in their souls and as the consciousness or 
spirit) and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent 
(and developed in accord with thy purposes). I 
have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the 
work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O 
Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with 
the glory which I had with thee before the world 
was " (or before the world became a factor in my 
life). 

Christ here recognized the fact that in private 
life to a large degree man is alone with his con- 
sciousness or God. With the right relationship 
existing between soul and spirit this life may be 
filled with joy, contentment and quiet regardless 
of our contact with friends and acquaintances. 
But this must in a large degree be sacrificed 
when we attempt to influence the lives of men. 
This environment must be given up, the demands 
on the time of such men will permit of it only oc- 
casionally. Christ is now looking forward to 3. 



JOHN'S VIEW OF CHRIST 179 

renewal of its pleasures. He states further that 
he has declared God and his purposes to all who 
had been able to free themselves of material 
things " and they have kept the words. Now 
they know all things whatsoever thou hast given 
me are of thee." What things God had shown 
asked the Father to perfect these lives that the 
Christ in his study of life he had declared. They 
had received them as God's words and ways. He 
asked the Father to perfect these lives that the 
joy he had known might be " fulfilled" in them 
and that they might be with him where he was 
and the development he had attained, that " they 
might behold my glory which thou hast given 
me," for this conception would widen their pos- 
sibilities of future attainments. Christ gave as 
a reason for this request, " for thou lovest me 
(my development) before the foundation of the 
world " (before the traits of human character 
which underlay the world as it was and is). He 
embraced in this prayer all who would follow his 
ways, but asked nothing for those who were en- 
grossed in mere material things, as nothing de- 
sirable from his point of view was possible for 
them. 



CHAPTER XIII 
CLOSING THOUGHTS 

Christ was seated on the night of the feast of 
unleaven bread in a little room with his disciples. 
His teachings were over and he was now about to 
leave them. The bargain for his life was made, 
but before leaving he was desirous of enforcing 
his precepts by an example of what he meant as 
to the relationship which his followers should 
bear to one another. It was a moment in the life 
of the Nazarene when he had to meet the out- 
raged prejudices, opinions and settled convic- 
tions of the Jew. 

The words of the law given on Sinai, coming 
with the authority of " Thus saith the Lord God 
of Israel," could not be lightly set aside. The 
Jew was not the man who would, could or did 
accept another law or another way. The shrewd 
manipulators among the members of the San- 
hedrin had discovered a weakening member in his 
band of followers and had tried the power of 
gold. He must use caution if he was to enjoy 
another Passover and a quiet supper alone with 
his disciples. 

The way to seclusion and privacy was shown 
by a man carrying a water jar and led by him 
they found the way, perhaps singly or in pairs 
180 



CLOSING THOUGHTS 181 

to the quiet rendezvous. It was perhaps pre- 
eminently Christ's feast, arranged, planned and 
paid for by him, it is thought. 

Can you appreciate the moment and how it 
must have appealed to him? He had taught by 
word and action, using every means to give them 
his view of life. Their conception of it was 
partial and fragmentary. How could he impress 
upon them an example or an illustration or a 
rite which would enforce his thought when they 
understood the world and the soul better? He 
had sought a solution, and found it in the most 
common and least dispensible action of man, the 
partaking of food for the sustenance of life. 

As his guests they were enjoying an hour of 
quiet conversation, when, rising, he took bread 
and breaking it, he said : 

" THIS IS MY BODY, GIVEN FOE YOU, TAKE, 
EAT." 

A fragment of broken bread was in his hand, 
and he declared, " This is my body." He spoke 
of a material creation whose present form — 
bread — was due to man's effort, his labor, his 
time and his thought. Can it be that this is lit- 
erally true? Is the product of man's labor in 
fact his body? Does wealth cost body? 

Our labor in securing the wheat is a request 
for it. We plow. We sow. We care for and 
till. We gather the sheaves and thresh the grain. 
It is a process of asking in a prescribed way and 
caring for the increase. We add to this the 



182 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

labor of transportation, the milling, the distri- 
bution of the flour, the nurture, the baking and 
the service of the banquet. It is at the end of 
this process that Christ declares, " This is my 
body. 5 ' 

Is God immanent in the bread, as Luther de- 
clared? Is the bread a mere symbol, as many 
now declare? Or was Christ declaring an eco- 
nomic truth which we are commonly familiar 
with? 

Man receives two general experiences from the 
body — time and energy. Economists assert 
that value or wealth arises from time and energy 
— labor. 

Time. What is time? We look for a defini- 
tion and find, " Time is a measured portion of 
duration." But what is time? We look into the 
world about us and find that time is the succession 
of the suns, of dark and light, — the marshalling 
of the hosts of night and the glories of the day, 
the passage of days, of seasons, of years, of 
periods, the rise of animation in the vegetable 
world and its decay. 

But what is time? It is not these phenomena. 
These are the incidents of time. We look into 
our being, our physique or body and find that 
Time is the span of sense, — the moments when in 
infancy, in youth, in manhood and in age the 
world is known by the senses of sight, of hearing, 
of scent, of touch and taste, when the body is 
the means of knowledge of the world about us 



CLOSING THOUGHTS 183 

and ends with the blight of sense, when slumber 
comes. 

Time is the duration of body, when the senses 
bring us the phenomena of the natural world. 
This, the duration of sense, is time to us. He 
who gives time gives of his body a portion of its 
life or duration. He may say, " This is my 
body." 

The expending of energy, is this also body? 
As the preparation of the ground goes on, the 
sowing, care of the crop, the harvest progress, 
each effort consumes the tissues of body and makes 
necessary the food in preparation, to rebuild and 
renew it. If we can say that the wear of a 
machine is a legitimate outlay or cost item in 
production, we certainly have the same right to 
consider the body of the workingman in the same 

light. 

When the process is complete and bread, cloth- 
ing, house, machine or utensil is produced, does 
not the consumption of the tissue of nerve, muscle 
and brain during a portion of the duration of 
sensuous life of the body entitle the workingman 
to say, " This is my body ? " Throughout the 
whole process of production the body is in forfeit 
and consumed. This is not figurative. It is 
the truth underlying our commercial life. 

Christ then added, " Given for you." Can 
you imagine an illustration that could open the 
minds of those men to this truth? It has re- 
quired the experiences, the life about and inci- 



184 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

dent to our present industrial organization to 
enable us to see the truth. 

The disciples had toiled for the fish and for 
them sought bread, or grain, or clothing, or any 
material which supplied their wants from the man 
who has spent his life or body in producing 
them. Could they appreciate that they were in 
truth giving their bodies for others? To them 
it was a means of securing these things, a method 
of exchange of goods. They looked at material 
objects which they gave or secured. The real 
exchange of portions of their physical life, their 
bodies, was obscured from them. They did not 
see this. It was so much received for thjeir 
labor. They saw no farther. 

But as the view of Christ comes to us and we 
see in these commodities the lives of our fellow- 
men, we quickly perceive that the time and 
energy have been spent for others. The quan- 
tity produced is far beyond the needs. He has 
thought of others' needs, — to profit by their 
needs perhaps, — but he has thought of their ne- 
cessity and made preparations to supply it. 

A very small portion of our work is for our- 
selves. A very little of it would be sufficient to 
meet our own requirements along the line of our 
given task. The remainder is " Given for you, 5 ' 
that it might supplement the inability of others 
to provide for their wants. This also is an un- 
derlaying thought in the economic world, and 
its perfection in our industrial life has given us 



CLOSING THOUGHTS 185 

what we term division of labor. The labor freely 
given for others, directed for others and asso- 
ciated with others, has produced marvels. 

The conclusion of this laconic expression of 
the basic thoughts or principles of our economic 
life was, " Take, eat." He saw their eyes were 
blinded by their material view point and also b^ 
their self interest. It was for themselves that all 
was done in their thought. Their food, their 
clothing, their needs and their comforts were 
sought by the expenditure of person. 

If they were to save their souls from the blight 
of this condition and grow in breadth of view 
and nobility of conduct in this principal rela- 
tion of man with man, they must change their 
means of distribution. They could not continue 
to look upon the goods and wares of this life 
and barter in them, seeing how they could most 
successfully supply their needs with the least 
labor possible. Getting the most possible for 
what they produced, or giving the least possible 
for what they secured, — how could this change 
be brought about? 

The change must be in the man's soul. His 
attitude toward these commodities must change, 
his thought of them must change, and he there- 
fore stated the thought which must actuate the 
man who is saved from this blight upon his soul. 
He must look for joys that these commodities 
could not bring. The men about him must give 
joy to his soul, and that he might meet them 



186 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

freely and openly without restrain or suspicion, 
he must say to them, " Take these things free, 
and eat/ 5 and they must meet him in like man- 
ner. 

When all gave freely toward the production 
and distribution of the needs of man and said to 
each other, " Take according to your necessity," 
the most favorable condition would exist for the 
development of soul. Less time would be spent 
on these things. Our needs would be simpler. 
Our opportunities, faculties and means of soul 
life would command more and more of our time. 
The attitude of all should be ; " Take of the ne- 
cessities we have prepared, then come with us and 
aid in the enlargement of soul, for in this is the 
fullness of life to us. This is our pleasure and 
our profit. It is what we seek." 

How can it be done? When the soul of man 
desires such a condition, man will find the way. 
Christ would create the condition of soul. 
When saved, the soul will make its own habita- 
tion and environment. Christ shows the way to 
life, not the way to food. 

There was yet further lesson for them to learn. 
Life thus circumstanced must be understood. 
How was it to be used and lived? They under- 
stood the Mosaic idea that by the sacrifice of 
blood alone could sin or error be removed and the 
soul be free, but did they know that the soul was 
thus built up and saved? 

As he took the cup to make this truth per- 



CLOSING THOUGHTS 187 

sonal, I imagine that he must have felt and known 
how impossible it was for them to perceive his 
thought. In the rites they would follow and 
in the words they would repeat was his only hope 
that some day some mind would see. 

As he gave the cup to them, he said, " Drink 
ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New 
Testament which is shed for many for the re- 
mission of sins." 

Thus Christ would tell man how he accom- 
plished the salvation of his soul and commend this 
method to him. Was it an untried process? No. 
The Jewish rite of blood sacrifice was built upon 
it. They knew from this experience much they 
could recall. 

But it was a new testament that " my blood " 
should be " shed for many for the remission of 
sins." This was an added use. We must shed 
our blood, consume it in restoring the tissues 
destroyed for others if we would save our own 
soul. 

In a knowledge of " many " only will we be 
able to know ourselves. Do you learn of the 
latent powers of your being when alone and with- 
out knowledge of others? Do you grow in the 
powers of your being when alone? No. You 
see the lack of your brother in knowledge, in 
grace of character, in power of enjoyment, in 
a narrowed view of life, in application to the 
end sought, in appreciation of himself or others, 
in power to express himself, in warmth of feeling, 



188 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

in self control or in any way, and your effort in 
his behalf rewards you by possession of the 
quality while assisting him. You become what 
you would aid your brother to be. Only as your 
soul awakes and experiences life can you recount 
it to him. 

But this is not all. You are constantly 
awakening powers latent and unknown before. 
They were there as possibilities. But seeing 
them in another led you to recognize the pos- 
sibility within you. When awakened and in use, 
they become our possessions. They open new, 
wider, deeper life for us. Such a soul alive to 
its strength and powers, held by a firm self- 
mastery, is saved from lethargy, ossification and 
death. This is salvation. 

Christ would have us learn the process of 
building and growth in our body through the 
agency of the blood and have us know that the 
process is identical in the soul. 

As we use the muscles of our body, they are 
worn and consumed by the effort. The blood 
replaces the wear and builds stronger to meet the 
future requirement. If we continue to use them 
the strength increases, the fibre hardens, the 
muscles grow, and the effort once difficult be- 
comes easy and pleasurable. 

The growth of the soul-life is the same. We 
first with conscious effort and difficulty think or 
will or love or do right and so on. This use of 
soul we find adds to its strength. We think or 



CLOSING THOUGHTS 189 

will or love or do right with greater ease, with 
more power and greater pleasure with each suc- 
ceeding effort. The vigor of soul increases, 
making new achievements less arduous. We gain 
confidence. We appreciate our possessions of 
soul. We want more. We strive for them. 
We secure them. 

Error or sin is removed by neglect as we 
strive for the perfection of these our new pos- 
sessions, or cast them aside because no longer 
desirable. 

The Mosaic code recognized that in the sacri- 
fice of blood in tissue of brain and muscle alone 
could error or sin be removed. Christ declares 
that the sacrifice of blood in the aid of others 
will bring remission of sin and salvation. 

The teaching of Christ was over. But the 
lessons of his life were not. It was yet to be 
demonstrated that the results of life as lived 
by him were eternal. He had said that the soul 
would be saved if his way, his truth and his life 
were followed. But how were these things to be 
known? 

The method to be employed to establish the 
truth had been shown when alone on the mountain. 
The sensuous evidence of the life to come was 
made plain to Christ on the mountain. The 
soul life of the future had been opened to him. 
He spoke in reference to it with the authority 
of a man who knows and has only to await the 
vindication and establishment of his utterances. 



190 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

As we watch for the recurring phenomena of 
natural law after being acquainted with their 
operation, as man foretells an eclipse and posi- 
tively asserts its time and place based on his faith 
in the law he knows, so Christ foretold his death 
and resurrection based on the demonstration of 
resurrection there made. The change could not 
be death to him. He claimed eternal life, the 
salvation of his soul, and looked forward into 
the future life as we look forward into the com- 
ing day. God was about to give evidence to 
the senses of man that this was true. He alone 
by his administration of the force of the universe 
could give such evidence. 

What was the change which Golgotha brought 
to Christ? The cold clay laid in the unused 
sepulcher, what portion of life did it represent? 
The nerves of sense and sensation, the instrument 
by which the soul received its knowledge of the 
world and executed its decrees. This instrument 
or body was what had been laid aside. Was this 
the end of all? Was the soul educated and skilled 
in the use of this instrument of sense now to have 
direct contact with law? Was there a future 
life? To these questions God alone could reply. 
He did so by displaying to sensuous man forty 
days of Christ's life after this change called 
death. 

Have you not felt as your mind grew that less 
forceful or emphatic evidence was required for 
you to grasp the truth? Have you thought 



CLOSING THOUGHTS 191 

that the babe was prepared to receive the hard 
knocks required to make it understand? The 
older we grow (if we grow) the less emphatic 
phenomena are required. We see the " ear 
marks " of truth. The trained mind grasps it 
and delves here and there for wider, deeper and 
more perfect knowledge. 

The coarse evidence possible through this body 
limits and restricts us. The growing soul beats 
against these restrictions and longs for wider, 
finer, swifter and more accurate means. The 
telescope, microscope, rapid transit and commun- 
ication by other mechanical devices are but 
partial answers. They but widen our sphere 
enough to make us know the apparently limitless 
possibilities beyond. Are we to be thus en- 
thralled, or is this span of sense to prepare us for 
a life to open in its fullness all the possibilities of 
this universe to us ? Is a soul saved to the fullest 
and has it achieved its ultimate powers, graces and 
abilities when this instrument of flesh has been 
exhausted and thrown aside? We have found 
nothing to indicate this. A soul may refuse to 
grow, but we have never known a soul that could 
not grow and become greater, nobler and more 
vigorous. 

Christ's resurrected life shows plainly some 
things: That the ideas actuating Christ were 
not changed; that the person which he possessed 
had greater powers, opening more fully the crea- 
tion or universe to man. This coarse manifesta- 



192 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

tion of force to bring to our senses the laws of 
nature and life seems to have passed away. The 
locked door was no barrier. He disappeared 
from sight of sensuous eyes. Emerson has sug- 
gested that perhaps creation was laws and their 
material manifestation due to the senses of man. 
We do* not know matter but as law. David sug- 
gests that the " Heavens will roll up as a scroll." 

Whatever the equipment be, a larger life is 
shown, a grander possibility, a basis upon which 
a definite idea of the future can be formed, and the 
assurance that whatsoever we know in the soul 
will be our possession then, and whatsoever we 
suppress in the soul will be dead then. 

Thus God has given to man a definite and com- 
plete expression of the life he intends him to lead 
to fully prepare himself for the future which he 
had made plain in the resurrection life of Christ. 



CHAPTER XIV 
PAUL'S VIEW 

The people to whom Christ spoke were largely 
occupied with their physical existence and the 
phenomena of the natural world. The develop- 
ment of soul to them possibly would come largely 
through the regulation of their animal activities, 
and thus influence the soul and awaken its powers. 
Christ's plea, we have seen, was for a conscious 
development of the soul, that the developed soul 
might express itself in nobler, better activities. 
Christ would reverse entirely man's attitude 
toward nature and himself. He makes no re- 
quirements of the body. He demands conscious 
activity of the soul to redeem or awaken the 
powers which the body would express. 

His statement of the truth did not insure its 
being understood or used by those who heard it. 
It has always been true that time, much time, is 
needed for man to understand what has been 
stated to him, and that he may conform his life 
to a new conception. A link was needed to con- 
nect the thought of Christ with the thought of 
men, a " days-man," who could touch hands 
with both, and lead mankind on its slow, tedious, 
upward journey. A man was required whose 
mind bore the imprint of his time, who looked 
from the view-point of his fellows, and who be- 
193 



194 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

lieved in the development of the soul through the 
activities of the person, but whose mind could 
grasp in part the thoughts, appreciate the spirit 
and value the life of Christ. It was the masterly 
mind of Paul who caught the thoughts, the spirit 
and the truth which Christ declared, but whose 
mind seemed ever to hold the imprint placed upon 
it by the teachings of Israel and Greece. 

It was he who now came forward to plead, not 
for the developed soul as Christ had done, but for 
the phenomenon or physical expression of a de- 
veloped soul. He spoke of the development of 
" them who by patient continuance in well doing 
seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal 
life." His steps of progress were from their basis 
of animal existence to the awakened soul, as he 
thus states : " We glory in tribulations also 
(physical trials) knowing that tribulation work- 
eth patience, and patience experience, and experi- 
ence, hope ; and hope maketh not ashamed, because 
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the 
Holy Ghost which is given unto us." He would 
appeal to the preceptive faculty through the 
senses alone, and by an ideal course of conduct 
produce a soul such as Christ possessed. 

He recognized that conduct did not produce 
this development of soul, but growth (grace) 
given by God. The conduct was to be found in 
presenting " your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 
acceptable unto God," and would result in the 
soul being " not conformed to this world, but 



PAUL'S VIEW 195 

transformed by the renewing of your minds, that 
ye may prove what is the good and acceptable 
and perfect will of God," or that you may learn 
the laws of God in your souls by attempting to 
pursue Christ's line of conduct. 

Paul evidently takes the same basis of thought 
that is found in the Mosaic Law. He begins 
where it left off and attempts to teach a further 
development of soul, still using physical regula- 
tions, but he does not stop on the level of the 
Mosaic law. He called attention to the peculiar 
phenomenon or expression of the spirit in man 
by an enumeration of the development which the 
spirit produced in different souls, and compared 
this to the different members of the body. As 
the different members of the body constitute one 
body, so the different attributes of the soul made 
one complete soul such as Christ had reared. 
Thus collectively they, the Corinthians, to whom 
he spoke, formed a complete soul, each depending 
upon the others for the development of the latent 
powers in the soul of each. He closed this com- 
parison with the words " Now ye are the body 
of Christ and members in particular." 

Paul beheld in the life of Christ a supreme 
mastery over the soul that commanded it under 
all circumstances for the highest good of every 
faculty he possessed. He saw in Christ no at- 
tribute but what was curbed and fashioned by 
this power. In other words, he beheld the 
phenomenon of the consciousness of man gov- 



196 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

erning and giving harmonious development to 
the soul. In the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians 
he lauds this power, and names some of its ex- 
pressions, under the broad term of charity or love. 
It excells all other powers of man. " Charity 
suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not; 
charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth 
not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is 
not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth 
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in truth; beareth all 
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, en- 
dureth all things. Charity never faileth." He 
went further, and made this the distinction between 
childhood when physical things occupy the life, 
and manhood when the conscious activities of the 
soul should occupy life. 

Paul's experience with the Galatians showed 
him that mere conduct or " works of the flesh " 
could not in themselves develop the soul. This 
must be done by " faith, the faith of Christ." 
He asked them, " Having begun in the Spirit, 
are ye now made perfect by the flesh? " No. It 
must be by faith in the spirit. His argument 
was that spiritual development could not come by 
conducting themselves as if spiritual, but by a 
faith in that spirit which would make them spir- 
itual. Just as you cannot have electric lights by 
producing something that appears like an electric 
light, but by a faith in electricity which leads you 
to use the laws that produce electricity. He did 
not illustrate his thoughts by similar phenomena 



PAUL'S VIEW 197 

in forms of force, as we have done, but by the 
lives of Abraham and others. 

He seemed desirous of emphasizing the fact 
that this was a step beyond the Mosaic code, since 
he refers to the code as " bondage under the ele- 
ments of the world ; but when the fullness of the 
time was come, God sent forth His Son, . . . 
to redeem them that were under the law, that we 
might receive the adoption of Sons." He went 
on to say that those who lived under this law were 
not living by faith in the spirit, which is opposed 
to the flesh. He enumerates the expression of 
each in the life of man and told them to assist each 
other to overcome their difficulties, " Bear ye one 
another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." 
As a man soweth so will he reap. If to the 
flesh he shall reap corruption. If to the Spirit 
" everlasting life." Neither the Mosaic law nor 
our conduct nor aught of this kind " availeth 
anything, but a new creature." 

In Paul the look on life at times seems question- 
able. He does not possess the confidence of 
Christ. There is a doubt implanted as to our 
ability to stand in the evil day amid the trials 
and buffetings which life contained for him, and 
which he warns all to prepare for. His view is 
of the conduct of physical man and he seems to 
waver between the preservation of the body and 
the development of soul, as to their relative im- 
portance. " Be not slothful in business, fervent 
in spirit, serving " (the nobler joys of the Soul) 



198 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

that mortality might be swallowed up in life. 

It is this that makes him remarkable a man 

who spans the chasm between the intensely 
spiritual thought of Christ and the extremely 
materialistic thought of men. In none of his 
writings does Paul give evidence that he under- 
stood the laws by which animal man grows into 
a developed soul. Its expressions in physical life 
were all he recognized and this expression he 
would fashion after similitude of Christ. This is 
shown by his many rules of conduct. 

Paul divorced in his thought the Lord's Sup- 
per from the activities of man in the production 
and distribution of the necessities of life. He 
states distinctly that " if any man hunger, let him 
eat at home," and by his account of the service 
of the Lord's Supper in I. Cor. ii. 23-34 makes it 
a rite performed only in the assembly of his fol- 
lowers. This unquestionably is the basis of the 
rite observed to-day, and is largely the cause of 
the distinction in the minds of men between the 
sacred and secular affairs of life. 

The mental conditions which he sought to im- 
plant in man may be best appreciated by three 
passages from his epistles : Phil. ii. 5-7 : " Let 
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 
who being in the form of God thought it not rob- 
bery to be equal with God, but made himself of 
no reputation and took upon him the form of a 
servant, and was made in the likeness (or habit) 
of men." Phil. iii. 14 : " Not as though I had 



PAUL'S VIEW 199 

already attained, either were already perfect : but 
I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for 
which also I am apprehended of Jesus Christ." 
Phil. iv. 8 : " Finally, brethren, whatsoever 
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, 
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are 
pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever 
things are of good report, if there be any virtue 
and if there be any praise, think on these things." 

Paul would enter the mind and control and 
fashion it as he had done the physical conduct 
of man. He would give it the general trend 
noted in Christ's conduct regarding service, while 
realizing the full dignity of purpose, and confine 
the mental activities within the boundaries of pre- 
scribed avenues of thought. It is not to be ex- 
pected that he would conceive of his followers ad- 
justing social conditions to their needs, but he 
rather taught them to adjust themselves with as 
little friction as possible to the existing condi- 
tions. This social friction formed a portion of 
the fight which he refers to when he said, " I have 
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I 
have kept the faith," but largely the contention 
was between the physical demands and the require- 
ments of the soul in its growth. 

Paul widened the field for Christian thought by 
extending it to new people. He thus placed it in 
the minds of peoples free from centuries of Jew- 
ish prejudices. 

In his letter to the Hebrews Paul attempts to 



200 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

give Christ a place in the Jewish mind, familiar 
as it was with the ways of Mosaic law and rite. 
He called their attention to the fact that God 
had used many ways in speaking to the people, 
but " hath he in these later days spoken unto us 
by His Son " (soul). He further states that " it 
became him in bringing many sons (souls) unto 
glory, to make the captain of their salvation per- 
fect through sufferings." This captain he pre- 
sented to them as " the apostle and High Priest 
of our profession." 

" Though he were a son, yet learned he obedi- 
ence through the things he suffered, and being 
made perfect, he became the author of eternal 
salvation unto all them that obey him." He 
showed how their promised rewards were based on 
the observance of Mosaic rites, " but now he 
(Christ) hath obtained a more excellent minis- 
try, by how much also he is mediator of a better 
covenant which was established on better prom- 
ises." 

" This is the covenant that I will make with 
them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put 
my laws into their hearts and in their minds will 
I write them." 

Paul pictures the temple worship, and states 
that the sealed " Holy of Holies " signified that 
" the way into the holiest of all was not yet mani- 
fest," that the temple services " could not make 
him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to 
the conscience." But Christ " by his own blood 



PAUL'S VIEW 201 

entered at once unto the holy place, having ob- 
tained eternal redemption." 

It is not at all difficult to recognize Paul as 
giving the basis for existing Christian concep- 
tions. We are familiar also with the subsequent 
growth of these thoughts and their natural devel- 
opment into the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The 
man who was presumed capable of directing the 
conduct of others to develop and redeem the soul 
gained thereby a power over his fellows not un- 
like that of a king, who rules by the deep-rooted 
idea of authority by might. It was inevitable 
that sooner or later these two powers should come 
together and dispute the right to command the 
movements of organized society. 



CHAPTER XV 
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY 

The civilization of the time proved to have ex- 
hausted the vitality of the Romans, Greeks and 
Jews soon after Christ's days. The first 500 
years saw them decline gradually into that state 
which left little to distinguish the lives of the ma- 
jority from the cattle of the field. The investi- 
gator of the succeeding 500 years finds the soul 
of man so blank and degenerate, so without de- 
velopment or activity, that the period has little to 
bequeath save the story of universal night in the 
soul of man. 

It is, however, not surprising that the develop- 
ment of the character that God would rear should 
be found in other peoples than those in whom the 
growth of prejudice, precedent and beliefs were 
so strong. As the generation of Israel which 
came from Egyptian bondage must pass away 
before a new and permanent abode could safely 
be given this people, so the peoples which had 
brought to their fruition the conceptions of an- 
tiquity must pass from the stage of human his- 
tory as leaders, to make possible the development 
which the new thoughts of Christ was to bring. 

The people of earth had not yet all settled 
from the dispersion which took place in the early 
time, when they drew apart at the building of the 

202 



SUBSEQUENT HISTORY 203 

Tower of Babel or when the division and separa- 
tion took place. Some were still following their 
nomadic lives in Northern Europe; but just be- 
fore the Dark Ages set in, they located in the dis- 
trict beyond the northern confines of the fast- 
dying civilization of antiquity. These Teutonic 
tribes had much of the native vigor of early man, 
possessing a fine physique, with a clear, yet bar- 
baric mind. They had not been debauched by the 
luxury of organized society. Their minds had 
not been moulded into the prejudices, ideas and 
opinions with which civilized man was bound and 
harnessed. They were governed by the idea that 
might made right, and this was the basis of au- 
thority among them ; yet it was more elastic than 
is usual with early races, the majority determin- 
ing what should be done. 

These people now had found a permanent 
home, — not among the abundance of tropic or 
semi-tropic countries, as had their predecessors 
of the southern civilization, but in a country 
whose rigorous climate demanded that they give 
much attention to the sustenance and comfort of 
the body. This added to the idea of authority 
by might the thought of the importance of pro- 
viding for the necessities and comforts of the 
physical man. This thought did not come as a 
mere consideration which was dependent on a 
bountiful or scanty harvest, but as an essential 
element in their conception of life, for the sever- 
ity of the winter made it obligatory upon them 



204 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

to provide for this season. The bountiful board 
of the Almighty, spread for man, the funda- 
mental law of which is given by Christ in the Last 
Supper, was surrounded with circumstances by 
which God could compel man to give it marked 
attention. The followers of Paul observed the 
rite of the Last Supper in their assemblies, but 
God was about to require them to give it a wider 
and larger place in their thought and life. 

It was natural that these crude peoples should 
be influenced in a marked degree by their contact 
with organized society. While possessing better 
physique and greater native vigor, they had come 
in contact with stronger minds, which left their 
imprint strongly upon them. The strongest and 
perhaps the first influence which their contact 
with civilization had was to cause a further use 
of the idea of authority by might and to begin a 
political organization along the lines of the civil- 
ization which they were about to supersede. The 
influence which was destined to have the greatest 
and moat lasting effect was that of the Church or- 
ganized about the conception of Paul, bringing 
to these people a new idea of life with a course 
of conduct which would save them from the dire 
effects of the sins of man. 

We thus find three seed-thoughts or concep- 
tions lying at the basis of the civilization which 
these peoples were about to produce. One came to 
them from the remotest antiquity, early quickened 
into political organization: Power by Might 



SUBSEQUENT HISTORY 205 

One brought them the highest and noblest con- 
ception of life the world has ever known, al- 
though clothed in ritualism and rules of conduct: 
The Thoughts and Life of Christ. One grew 
out of their geographical location and caused 
them almost immediately to begin to develop com- 
merce and led them to observe and investigate the 
laws of nature : Fear of Physical want. 

The real development, however, of our present 
civilization has been about the code of laws im- 
planted in nature and man. Commerce early 
sprang up among the people, and its laws, advan- 
tages and blessings became known to them. This 
called attention to the natural world and its laws, 
that they might be used for the benefit of man. 
While this was true, and the intimacy with na- 
ture has drawn forth most of the advancement in 
man of to-day, the institution of church and State 
have placed their imprint upon it. 

The Teutons held all their land by right of 
conquest, and this early led to the idea that all 
right to land was vested in the king, and that he 
alone could exercise dictatorial rights. The king 
delegated this sovereign privilege to his retain- 
ers upon promise of an army to support him when 
occasion demanded. These retainers held the 
people as fixtures to the land. This has given us 
our basis of land tenure ever since. 

The Church entered the lives of the people in a 
remarkable degree. She it was who christened 
them at their birth, gave them the little knowledge 



206 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

they could glean, performed the marriage rite, at- 
tended them in sickness, comforted them in sor- 
row, and when death claimed them placed them in 
their final resting place. This opened to her their 
minds to hear and favor the words of Christ. 

In other words, the soul of man has grown by 
his contact with nature and his fellows ; the method 
by which he has done so has been prescribed by 
the State, while the Church has administered to 
his many social wants and quickened his con- 
sciousness. We find thus the three-fold nature of 
man appealed to. For the first time in history 
has there arisen a development in man appealing 
to his three-fold being. It is apparent upon con- 
sideration that the greatest possibilities within 
man may be called forth about this code of natu- 
ral laws, as they contain all that the Almighty 
has given for his growth and development. 

These basic thoughts of the new civilization 
slowly took root in the minds of men while yet the 
night of the Dark Ages was upon them. This 
gave them deep and firm hold on the masses so 
that with the awakening to the knowledge which 
Greece, Rome and Israel bequeathed them came 
the rapid development which clung close to these 
basic thoughts. It was a rich heritage indeed 
that came to these crude, barbaric men. Greece 
brought her keen, comprehensive investigation of 
nature, its laws and its beauties, and her philos- 
ophy. Rome brought her experience and her 
perfected organization, with its regulations, its 



SUBSEQUENT HISTORY 207 

power and its advantages. Israel gave the hum- 
ble life of the Nazarene, his exalted outlook, his 
declaration of the laws of the soul, and his full 
redemption of all its powers, brought down to 
their basis of thought by the letters of Paul. 

The vigor of the barbaric mind is seen in its 
rapid perception of truth, and adjustment to this 
unparalleled opportunity. New life seemed to 
have been instilled into the entire people as the 
thoughts of Greece and Israel were added to those 
of Rome, Nature was the citadel they stormed, 
and brought from prison her secrets. The tele- 
scope, compass, linen paper, gunpowder, print- 
ing, the laws of our solar system were discovered, 
Magna Charta signed, America found, Savona- 
rola and Luther spoke, art sprang to rapid per- 
fection and modern literature began, — all within 
a short three hundred years. 

It would seem as though the soul of this bar- 
baric race, gathering strength through ages of 
disuse, had sprung forth at last, and taken its 
place as the recognized and dominant element in 
human life. Not only did the people seem to 
have awaited this moment, but the activity of man 
prior to this time culminated in its behest to this 
people. The " fullness of time " had come, and 
the soul of man arose to its normal position in the 
nurture prepared by God through the ages. 

We are prepared to find the basic thoughts 
about which this civilization arose altered to re- 
spond to this growth of soul. The development 



308 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

surrounding the seed-thoughts spoken of natu- 
rally followed at first three distinct avenues of 
expression, — that of political power, derived 
from organization of force, ecclesiastical power, 
through ability to direct the development of soul 
by its course of conduct, and commercial power, 
through command of necessities. As was natu- 
ral, the one which gave the trend to development 
slowly asserted its supremacy. Magna Charta 
was among the first inroads of commercial power 
upon political power, giving to all men the rights 
and advantages which the feudal lords hardly had 
before, namely, peaceful possession of property, 
habeas corpus, trial by jury of peers, permanent 
courts, representative government by a legislative 
assembly, thus adding to the necessity of the toil 
a hope of reward to every man. 

Martin Luther and others gave the entering 
wedge which killed the power of the priest as a 
spiritual dictator, and made him rather a spirit- 
ual advisor and guide. This movement also 
added importance to the interpretation and ideas 
of individuals, giving rise to numerous sects. 
The compass, the discovery of America and that 
the world is round, better highways, means of 
exchange, money institutions in many centers, 
et cetera, gave an impetus to trade and commerce, 
while printing, the scattering of the learning of 
Constantinople, the publication of Greek and 
Jewish thought, widened and developed the mind 
of man, making it possible for him to brings 



SUBSEQUENT HISTORY 209 

keener brains to the administration of trade. 

In the years that followed the peoples of Eu- 
rope slowly grew to the full conception of and 
adjustment to this change. Commerce brought 
the unlettered peasants into the towns and indus- 
trial centers ; the revolt of religious sects from re- 
straint and persecution started a flow of Europe's 
most vigorous, energetic and determined minds 
toward America, followed shortly by the ambi- 
tious and daring. 

About this time the influence of the broadening 
mind of man began to be felt in industries. The 
first steps toward the factory system began or- 
ganizing and marshalling the forces of produc- 
tion in the most economical and efficient manner. 
Labor unions have developed side by side with 
the factory system, finding in the power given by 
the administration of productive forces, the causes 
for their rise and growth. The discovery and 
application of steam gave rapid transportation 
both on land and water, and telegraphy gave 
rapid communication around the globe, annihilat- 
ing distance and made the operations of trade 
world-wide. It made the most distant worker our 
next-door neighbor and his product a portion of 
our daily needs. The extension of trade natu- 
rally demanded an extension of organizations con- 
ducting trade. The local concerns became terri- 
torial, then national, then international. As the 
economy and advantages of centralization in 
production became apparent, the necessity of 



210 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

marshalling vast resources both of material and 
men to the accomplishment of commercial enter- 
prises grew. Man in similar pursuits combined 
their efforts to meet demands. This has gone on 
until to-day many of the enterprises of every 
civilized land are controlled and administered by 
one central management throughout the country, 
and often their operations are international. 

The thought that dominates all men to-day is 
commercial. The fear of want and the hope of 
gain form the double lash God is using to drive 
men on. Thus God's bounty (the Lord's Sup- 
per) is the absorbing theme of the times. The 
etiquette of his table as Christ gave it we have 
yet to learn. 

The growth of commerce has had its pro- 
nounced influence on the development of politi- 
cal organization, and vice versa. We have noted 
that the sovereign right of a conqueror to the 
possessions secured gave us the basis of our land 
tenure. This idea was enlarged so as to secure 
the same rights in all personal property. To 
maintain these rights it became necessary to build 
and maintain a strong central government, capa- 
ble of defending them successfully, both within 
and without her domain. The security of posses- 
sions within a realm had hardly been secured when 
the growth of trade between nations called atten- 
tion to the necessity of securing the same safety 
to possessions lying in foreign territories. 
Treaties were made between these different cen- 



SUBSEQUENT HISTORY 211 

tralized governments insuring their citizens these 
rights. The marts of trade were not, however, 
confined to civilized lands. The ihstability of 
tribal or semi-barbaric organizations caused them 
to be overthrown by these political organs, which 
had now become foster-mothers of the infant in- 
dustries of the world. As soon as overthrown 
they were replaced by suborganizations under this 
central organ, whose every effort was influenced 
by the demands of trade, that it might grow and 
prosper. 

Thus we see power by might coming forward 
not in an independent organization exercising do- 
minion over the people as heretofore, but as an 
auxiliary or aid to the organization of trade. 
It has been occupied in securing peaceful pos- 
session to property within her borders and in 
other lands, protecting the merchant marine, fos- 
tering industry by tariffs, subsidies and grants, 
framing laws required by trade, and last, but not 
least, administering that portion of our social 
and commercial activities which held no reward 
but were a source of expense, such as schools, 
highways, intelligence bureaus, postal service, and 
so on, as well as police duty. 

The rise of the people generally, in response 
to the wide-spread opportunity for knowledge 
and growth, made it no longer true that the abil- 
ity to govern was vested in a few. The demand 
for recognition of all alike led to the growth of 
popular government. It has come by gradual 



212 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

steps until to-day the expression of the people, 
however given, whether by ballot, trend of utter- 
ance through the press or a general outburst of 
indignation, is the potent element in shaping the 
course of events in political life. 

The political organizations, as they have come 
more and more under the control of the people, 
have drifted more and more into trade, not only 
fostering but administering it. The postal serv- 
ice is wholly administered by governments, and in 
many lands the railroads, telegraph, banking, 
coal mining, etc., are run by the general govern- 
ment. The municipalities are rapidly develop- 
ing and administrating their public services, such 
as light, water, heat, street cars, and so on. In 
fact, the trend of events points to a speedy com- 
ing of the time when " Whosoever will be chief 
among you, let him be your servant " and the po- 
litically " great among you will be " occupied 
in the service of mankind by administration of 
our economic affairs. 

But the effect on trade of political usages has 
been quite as marked as the effect of trade upon 
political affairs. When small individual efforts 
occupied the attention of men, the simple rights 
given them under Magna Charta were sufficient. 
As the volume of trade increased, it became neces- 
sary to associate men together to meet the demand 
by bringing together sufficient men and material 
to produce as required. How were these to be 
managed? The steps in the solution of this ques- 



SUBSEQUENT HISTORY 213 

tion have followed largely our political experi- 
ence. Ownership is the method. First individ- 
ual, then co-partnership, then joint-stock com- 
pany, then a limited democracy or corporation, 
then a centralized corporation or trust covering 
an entire industry, from securing the raw mate- 
rial to marketing the product. Then later a 
combine gathered several of these trusts into a 
union. It is but a repetition of the political cen- 
tralization which prepared the commercial world 
for union by the identity of their method of pro- 
cedure. Both the corporate management of in- 
dustry and the republic or constitutional mon- 
archy are dependent upon the ballot for the solu- 
tion of their problems, or are semi-democratic. 
The Church has not maintained her position, 
although she has leavened the lump. As society 
advanced, it has gradually assumed her func- 
tions. The school is largely divorced from her, 
hospitals and fraternities wait upon the sick and 
needy as much as or more than she, the lecture 
platform successfully divides with her the direc- 
tion of public thought, and even the tenets of 
Christ are taught outside her membership. The 
great atheist movement has awakened a question 
in the public mind as to the correctness of her 
interpretations of Holy Writ. This has com- 
pelled a deeper, more thorough inquiry into the 
thoughts of Christ by the leaders of the Church, 
causing them to draw together, forgetful of past 
differences in mutual desire for truth. It is 



214 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

rarely now that they assert that " Lo there " is 
the kingdom of God, but the conviction is taking 
deep root in their minds that the " Kingdom of 
God is within you." That the soul of man con- 
tains the code of laws which form this kingdom 
is scarcely questioned to-day. 

Organization accomplishes two things, namely : 
A control of natural resource and productive en- 
ergy for the maintenance of those engaged in 
the undertaking, and the accomplishment of some 
task in behalf of man. The maintenance of the 
race is, primarily, the reason for commercial or- 
ganization. Still it increases the things of life 
and the ease with which they can be secured. 

The Church gives much time to secure the 
maintenance of edifices and workers. Primarily 
she would save to man his soul. Much of the 
machinery of State is occupied in securing the 
revenue. This enables the maintenance of the 
organization of might through whose authority 
the commercial and social problems are met and 
their solution sought. Commerce, however, pro- 
duces the maintenance of man. The other insti- 
tutions get commerce to support them by solicita- 
tion or the commands of the authority of might. 

We have noted the trend toward union of the 
political and commercial organizations by both 
being occupied in the maintenance of man. We 
do not see to-day that the purposes of man are 
also becoming one in all these lines of activity. 
However, the real test of man to-day, whether in 



SUBSEQUENT HISTORY 215 

Commerce or State, is " Do they grow? " Is he 
a stronger, keener, deeper and cleaner man? If 
so, his prestige increases and his power enlarges. 
If not, his position lessens, whatever his origi- 
nal ability may be. It is a question of the soul 
and what he has made of it. The making of 
the soul is, or should be, the purpose of the 
Church. Thus Commerce and State are being 
occupied with the maintenance of man, while the 
further task recognized and striven for is that 
of the Church. 

It will thus be seen that in all our institutions 
and activities we are converging toward one cen- 
tral power. Political and commercial union, 
prophesied by Christ, is ready for a junction. 
The institution of the Church is being dissipated 
into numerous channels, and her service to soci- 
ety is being done efficiently by others. The day 
seems not far off when there will be but " one 
fold," one institution, giving maintenance to the 
body and growth to the soul. 

We have sung of the glories and beauties of 
nature. We have set her laws to rhyme. We 
have described the most sacred longings of the 
soul, and told its every aspiration until the 
minds of men have quite fully grasped the laws 
of the soul intellectually. This has prepared us 
for a life freed from toil for physical needs. We 
have exploited this realm and can secure com- 
plete dominion. The realm just beyond us, the 
portals of which we are but entering, lies in a 



216 A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW 

region wholly occupied by the abilities, powers, 
graces and delights of the soul. We have out- 
grown redemption by a course of conduct which 
would develop the mind and are demanding a life 
lived in sovereign mastery of the soul, such as 
Christ lived. We must live in the spirit or con- 
scious exercise of the laws of our soul and nature 
about us. The day of intellectual recognition 
is past. The day of soul life is here. 



Nov i7 1909 



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